Troy Jackson, the former Maine Senate president and current Democratic U.S. Senate candidate, backed millions in taxpayer funding for Maine Maritime Academy while his son was registered as the academy’s legislative designee and a paid lobbyist, raising sharp questions about political favoritism and conflicts of interest.
In January 2024, Troy Jackson cosponsored a legislative bill proposing $13.4 million in new taxpayer money for Maine Maritime Academy, a significant funding boost argued by the academy as needed to address “rising costs.” This move came as Jackson finished his term as Senate president and ramped up his campaign to unseat Republican U.S. senator Susan Collins. What set this funding push apart was that his own son, Chace Jackson, was serving as the academy’s legislative designee, a role normally reserved for employees of state agencies, not outside lobbyists, and as a paid representative of the Resurgam Group, a lobbying firm that billed the academy as a client.
While the bill passed the Jackson-led Senate, it ultimately failed to become law. But the episode has triggered renewed scrutiny of the cozy connections between political insiders, their families, and taxpayer-funded institutions in Maine.
Records show that in both December 2022 and January 2024, Chace Jackson filed registration forms listing himself as the academy’s “legislative affairs coordinator.” On the 2022 form, he used the Resurgam Group’s office as his mailing address and provided a personal email; by 2024, he switched to an academy email and address, but continued to work as a Resurgam lobbyist. During this period, the Resurgam Group collected $182,500 in lobbying compensation from nine clients represented by Chace Jackson, according to Washington Free Beacon reporting.
Jackson’s legislative support for the academy did not begin, or end, with the $13.4 million bill. In July 2023, he backed a state budget that included an annual $2 million increase for Maine Maritime Academy. That increase, according to the Maine Service Employees Association, was the “single biggest” funding boost the group had seen in years. The pattern is clear: as Chace Jackson’s lobbying work for the academy ramped up, so did the taxpayer dollars flowing into the institution.
The arrangement between the Jackson family and Maine Maritime Academy has drawn criticism from longtime Maine legislative staffers and ethics observers. One staffer, quoted by the Free Beacon, flatly stated, “the son of the Senate president received preferential treatment,” adding, “I can't think of another time that has happened.” The same staffer pointed out that at other public institutions, such as the University of Maine and Maine Community College, legislative designees are full-time employees, not outside lobbyists: “It's proof that he was skirting the rules.”
Unlike Chace Jackson, University of Maine’s legislative designee, Samantha Warren, has held her role for nearly a decade and has not worked as an outside lobbyist during that time. The Free Beacon reported that a review of more than 300 active legislative designees in Maine found none registered as lobbyists with outside firms besides Chace Jackson.
This is not the first time the Jackson family’s political and financial interests have overlapped. Troy Jackson’s former chief of staff, B.J. McCollister, left the Senate office in 2021 to found the Resurgam Group, later hiring Chace Jackson and, in 2024, Max Rush, another Jackson chief of staff. Chace Jackson’s lobbying clients have included major corporate and advocacy interests, such as Diageo, the Maine Gun Safety Coalition, and Global Partners LP.
Troy Jackson has styled himself as a populist outsider, calling himself a “poor kid” and a “fifth-generation logger.” He has blasted “special interests, high-priced lobbyists, and corporate greed,” saying he’s running for U.S. Senate “to put power back in the hands of the people and fix our broken system.” His campaign spokesman echoed this populist pitch: “Troy Jackson has fought for working Mainers, and his guided [sic] by one goal: fixing our broken system so Maine’s working families stop getting squeezed while the rich get richer.”
Yet, as the Free Beacon’s reporting shows, Jackson’s own record in Augusta tells a different story, one where his family’s lobbying ties and political influence are deeply tangled. During the same period he was pushing new funding for Maine Maritime Academy, his son was representing the academy and other clients at the State House. Notably, Chace Jackson also lobbied on behalf of the Maine Gun Safety Coalition on two gun-control bills that Troy Jackson voted for, even though the National Rifle Association had previously endorsed him as a Second Amendment supporter.
The pattern stretches back years. In 2014, Chace Jackson worked for his father’s failed congressional campaign, collecting over $32,000 in salary. He also contributed $1,833.78 to the campaign, most of which, $1,750, was returned.
The Maine Ethics Commission, which oversees lobbying and conflict-of-interest disclosures, stopped requiring legislative-designee disclosures from Maine Maritime Academy in 2025 after deciding the academy was no longer a “state department or agency.” That shift, coming after years of Chace Jackson’s dual role, raises questions about oversight and transparency in Maine state government.
It remains unclear exactly why the academy’s classification changed, whether Chace Jackson continued working for the academy after 2024, and which specific bills he lobbied on that overlapped with his father’s votes. Chace Jackson has not registered as a Maine lobbyist in 2026, and the academy did not submit a legislative-designee registration form that year. He did not respond to requests for comment from the Free Beacon.
Meanwhile, the Jackson campaign has emphasized its working-class roots and commitment to “fixing our broken system,” even as the system appears to have worked quite well for those with the right political connections.
When politicians rail against “special interests” while steering taxpayer money toward their own family’s clients, it’s the ordinary taxpayer left holding the bill.
