Troy Jackson Cosponsored Bill Sending Millions of Taxpayer Dollars to His Son's Lobbying Client

Troy Jackson wants to be Maine's next senator, but before voters get there they might want to ask about the last bill he pushed through as Senate president. It sent millions in taxpayer money to a state academy. That academy happened to employ his son as its registered lobbyist. Jackson cosponsored the funding himself.

Maybe this is all a coincidence, the kind of thing that happens in a small state where everybody knows everybody. Maine isn't exactly teeming with career options, and family connections happen. But "everybody knows everybody" is precisely why lawmakers are supposed to be more careful, not less, when the money trail runs straight to their own kitchen table. Jackson didn't recuse himself. He didn't flag the relationship. He signed on as a cosponsor and let the checks go out.

This is the same guy running a Senate campaign against Susan Collins on the premise that he'll bring some kind of populist accountability to Washington. It's a tough sell when the paper trail shows him steering public dollars toward an outfit paying his own kid to lobby for exactly that money. Voters don't need a law degree to see the shape of it.

None of this means Jackson broke a statute. It means he made a choice, and the choice tells you something about how he operates when nobody's watching too closely. Collins has plenty of her own record to answer for, but at least nobody's accusing her of funneling state money to her children's clients. That's a low bar. Jackson should have to explain why he couldn't clear it.