Chuck Schumer Neuters Troy Jackson

Last week, Rebecca Traister in New York Magazine, followed by Nathan Bernard and Ryan Grim on Drop Site News, published two deeply reported and alarming stories. The gist of both is that, after Troy Jackson won the improvised, quick-strike nomination process for Maine’s U.S. Senate seat to replace Graham Platner, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) installed out-of-state campaign staff whose main goals seem to be to turn Jackson into a bland generic Democrat and neutralize his quirky outsider strengths.

My own reporting suggests an even more complicated story and an ongoing tug of war over who shall control the campaign. Jackson, a flat-out populist, is not an ideal candidate. He is not a great speaker, and he does not have anything like Platner’s charisma. 

What Jackson has is a gruff, sometimes endearing authenticity, which energizes volunteers. He is a pure Mainer. Taking that away from him, as Schumer’s out-of-state transplants seem to be doing, isn’t exactly smart.

When Platner dropped out of the race, and the state party moved to create local caucuses and a statewide convention to pick the new nominee, Jackson surprised many observers by sweeping the delegates and wrapping up the nomination in short order. He did this both because Platner supporters voted and mobilized for him and because of his very close ties with Maine’s labor movement, which is better than anyone else in the state at on-the-ground organizing.

At that point, the question arose about who would actually run the campaign. Though Platner supporters generally backed Jackson as the most progressive of the alternatives, there was not much love lost between Jackson’s team and Platner’s inner circle, who tended to view Jackson as a usurper. It was not in the cards for the Platner campaign to take charge of the Jackson campaign.

But squeezing out other Jackson people, including labor, was another matter. Jackson was starting from scratch in July against five-term incumbent Rep. Susan Collins (R-ME), armed with $11 million of her own and tens of millions of dollars in an outside super PAC with billionaire backers. The only real advantage Jackson could have had was that grassroots volunteer network, which means something in a small, rural state like Maine. You would think that this would be the last thing that anyone coming into the campaign would snuff out.

Related: Troy Jackson poses the strongest challenge to Susan Collins of her career

Yet when Schumer and company sized up Maine’s new nominee, they saw a blemished candidate, who was not great on the stump and who took positions well to the left of Schumer’s. It did not help that in July, Jackson had flatly declared that if elected, he would not support Schumer for Democratic leader.

Schumer and company installed campaign operatives whose two main qualifications are that they tend to lose elections and know nothing about Maine. One key player in Jackson’s decision to let Schumer’s people take over his campaign is Jackson’s former chief of staff and closest aide, B.J. McCollister. After leaving Jackson, McCollister created an advertising and consulting firm called Frame Strategies. 

McCollister stands to make a small fortune from placing the TV ads for the Jackson campaign, substantially using money raised by Schumer. McCollister urged Jackson to go with the Schumer team. To some Mainers, that looked like a conflict of interest. But the alternatives were not great either.

In the current infighting over whether Jackson will be allowed to play to his own strengths, the nuclear option would be to simply fire the out-of-state people and take back the campaign. But that is easier said than done. There are plenty of skilled locals who know how to run campaigns, but with several other Democrats on the November ballot, the good ones are not just sitting around waiting to be called. 

Lately, it appears that the let-Jackson-be-Jackson people have gained back a little ground. One of the complaints against the Schumer imports running the campaign was that they canceled local grassroots events and sent Jackson out of state for half of the month of September to raise money from wealthy donors. A focus on fundraising was always likely considering the cash deficit. 

Things may be changing for the better. Jackson’s latest schedule of events shows that for the next couple of weeks he will be mostly in Maine, doing town halls and other grassroots events, including Monday night’s conversation with Heather Cox Richardson. My sources say that after Traister’s piece ran, the initial reaction of the out-of-state consultants was to track down and punish leakers. Upon reflection, they realized that they had a problem.

Related: Platner, Collins, and the peculiar definition of political scandal

One problem is that despite their supposed expertise on TV spots, they have done a lousy job so far at coming up with an affirmative definition of who Troy Jackson is and what he stands for, allowing the better-funded Collins campaign to do it for them. 

Chuck Schumer throws his weight around, but that doesn’t mean he is smart in how he does it. The Maine Senate race was always going to be close. Denying Jackson the ability to play to his strengths, however quirky, just makes Collins’s job easier.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has been publicly reflecting on whether she is better off running against Chuck Schumer for his New York Senate seat in 2028 or running for president. At 36, she has three more decades to run for president. If she dispatches Schumer, it would be a gift to the people of New York and the Democratic Party.