Her race attracted international attention when the Republican Party of Maine issued press releases condemning her for playing the online video game World of Warcraft, claiming her "disturbing alter-ego" and "time-consuming double life" made her unfit to hold public office.
She returned to her maiden name, Colleen Madigan, in 2014 and was elected to the Maine House of Representatives's District 110 in 2016, winning with 2305 votes to 1661 for Republican Mark Andre.
After graduating from William Paterson College with a bachelor's degree in sociology in 1987, she worked with adults with mental illness, then spent a year in Eastern Europe providing supportive counseling services to international students.
A number of gamers raised money for organizations which support Lachowicz' candidacy, since her campaign could not solicit or receive any donations;[15] but she said she would rather not become the poster girl for a game she had almost completely stopped playing due to time pressure.
[16] The Maine Republican Party filed an ethics complaint, alleging that she cheated by posting on the ActBlue website, and claiming that this constituted improperly coordinating with political action committees to solicit campaign contributions.
[17] The attacks attracted international attention, including articles from Time, the BBC, Forbes, Slate, Politico and a piece on the satirical news program The Colbert Report.
Her overwhelming majority in Waterville (4,224 to 2,318) overcame her opponent's narrow leads in all the other municipalities: he won Winslow by 2,007-1,921, Pittsfield 990-702, Detroit 179-163, Clinton 837-705, Benton 824-579; and Albion 598-372.