'Skirting the Rules': Staffer Says Troy Jackson Steered $13.4m Toward Son's Lobbying Client

Troy Jackson allegedly helped steer more than $13.4 million in state funding towards a college that employed his son as a lobbyist, according to a new investigation, even as he runs for the US Senate in Maine on a strongly anti‑lobbyist, populist platform.

The probe found that Jackson's son, Chace, earned $182,500 in lobbying compensation while representing Maine Maritime Academy as its registered legislative designee. Troy Jackson, a former Maine Senate president and now the Democratic nominee for US Senate, is facing fresh scrutiny following a 31 August investigation by the Washington Free Beacon.

The report detailed Jackson's co‑sponsorship, in January 2024, of a bill that sought to deliver $13.4 million in additional state funding to Maine Maritime Academy, an institution that simultaneously employed his son, Chace Jackson, as its registered legislative designee and lobbyist.

The bill passed the Jackson‑led Senate at the time but did not become law. Months earlier, in July 2023, Jackson had also backed a separate state budget bill that included an additional $2 million a year for the academy, described by the Maine Service Employees Association as the single biggest funding increase the institution had seen in years.

An unnamed longtime Maine legislative staffer said that the arrangement suggested Chace Jackson had received preferential treatment, saying: 'You can look at the University of Maine system, you look at the Maine Community College – they're all employees. It's proof that he was skirting the rules.'

The staffer pointed to the University of Maine System's own legislative designee, Samantha Warren, who has held the role for nearly a decade without also working as an outside lobbyist, as the norm from which Chace Jackson's arrangement departed.

Jackson's Anti‑Lobbyist Pitch on the Line

Jackson, a fifth‑generation logger from Aroostook County, has spent years presenting himself as a champion of working‑class Mainers against corporate influence.

In an April 2026 profile by Maine Public, he declared: 'I'm tired of good bills that would help lower prescription drug costs, protect workers... get vetoed. All thanks to the work of special interests, high‑priced lobbyists and corporate greed.'

He also told the same outlet: 'My special interests are the people who elected me, not party bosses, lobbyists or the highest bidder.'

In April 2026, Jackson signed the 'People's Pledge', a voluntary commitment to swear off corporate and dark money, becoming the only candidate in that year's Maine gubernatorial primary to do so, according to an op‑ed.

Jackson later lost that primary, finishing third, before being nominated as the Democratic US Senate candidate in July 2026 after the original nominee withdrew.

Probe Details Son's Dual Lobbying Roles

The investigation examined Jackson's legislative record alongside his son's lobbying activities.

Chace Jackson registered as Maine Maritime Academy's legislative designee in December 2022 and renewed that registration in January 2024.

During the 2024 registration year, he earned $182,500 in lobbying compensation across nine clients, according to a separate report published on 3 August 2026.

Unlike the more than 300 other active legislative designees reviewed by an investigative reporter, none of whom are also registered outside lobbyists, Chace Jackson worked simultaneously as a partner at the Resurgam Group, a lobbying firm founded by Jackson's former chief of staff.

It has also been reported that, in 2019, Chace Jackson represented Global Partners LP, an oil and gas company, as part of a lobbying team opposing legislation that would have subjected the company to tighter environmental oversight following an emissions violation. That bill ultimately died in the Senate while his father served as president.

Jackson's campaign said Chace Jackson's lobbying clients 'paid $182,500 to the firm, not to Chace directly', and that Troy Jackson 'has fought for working Mainers' and 'is guided by one goal: fixing our broken system so Maine's working families stop getting squeezed while the rich get richer.'

Ethics Rules and 2026 Senate Race

Jackson is the Democratic nominee in the 2026 US Senate race, challenging Republican incumbent Susan Collins in a contest that has drawn national attention. His anti‑lobbyist stance has been a central pillar of his campaign message.

While there is no evidence that Jackson personally benefited financially from his son's lobbying work, critics have questioned the appropriateness of a Senate president backing taxpayer funding for an institution that employed his son as a lobbyist.

Maine law does not prohibit family members of legislators from lobbying, but it does require disclosure of such relationships, and Chace Jackson's registrations appear to have been properly filed.

Ethics observers nonetheless say the arrangement raises questions about transparency and potential conflicts of interest that are likely to resurface as the Senate race against Collins continues.