In the insular world of Maine politics, it’s known as the “water bottle incident.”
The moment happened some five years ago when then-state Senate president Troy Jackson clashed with fellow Democrats during a private meeting inside the state capitol. Jackson, a gruff former logger who has now catapulted into position as the state’s likely Democratic nominee for US Senate, grew so angry with one female lawmaker that he hurled a plastic water bottle.
That’s where the stories diverge.
The female legislator told colleagues that the incident deeply frightened her because she felt Jackson was aiming to hit her with the bottle, according to five sources who learned of the incident shortly after it occurred. That legislator was distraught as she left the meeting that day; months later she decided not to run for reelection in part, she told colleagues, because of Jackson’s conduct, three sources said.
Jackson’s campaign acknowledged to CNN on Monday that he had thrown the water bottle during the meeting but disputed he had lobbed it in anyone’s direction.
