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Republican Maine lawmaker questions Troy Jackson’s eligibility to be Democratic nominee for US Senate

AUGUSTA, Maine (WMTW) - A Republican member of the Maine House of Representatives sent a letter to the state’s top elections official, calling for an investigation into whether Troy Jackson is legally eligible to be the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate.

State Rep. James White, R-Guilford, sent the letter to Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows on Friday, the day before Jackson was chosen as the Maine Democratic Party’s Senate nominee during a special convention.

Jackson, the former president of the Maine Senate, won the nomination on Saturday through an election involving hundreds of delegates from all 16 Maine counties. Those delegates were chosen during nominating meetings that were held the weekend prior.

Less than two months ago, Jackson was a candidate for Maine governor, but he finished third in the Democratic primary race following a ranked choice voting tabulation that was completed 10 days after the June 9 election.

In his letter to Bellows, White said Maine election laws establish a clear limitation on candidates seeking public office, namely that “a person may not file, whether by primary election or nomination petition, as a candidate for more than one federal, state or county office at any election.” White cited sections 331, 351 and 363 of Title 21-A.

According to White, the apparent justification for Jackson’s eligibility depends entirely on treating the June 9 primary and the Nov. 3 general election as separate elections.

White said that interpretation is “difficult to reconcile” with the Supreme Court’s decision in Storer v. Brown, which held that a primary election is “an integral part of the entire election process” and the first stage of a two-stage election by which voters choose their public officials.

“That understanding gives full effect to the [Maine] Legislature’s decision to prohibit candidates from seeking more than one federal, state, or county office ‘at any election,’” White said in his letter to Bellows. “Courts have likewise recognized that so-called ‘sore loser’ laws exist to preserve the integrity of the electoral process by preventing candidates who lose one race from obtaining access to the general-election ballot through another path. Allowing a candidate to seek one statewide office, lose before the voters, and then become the nominee for a different statewide office through a party committee appears inconsistent with both text and purpose of Maine’s election laws.”

Jackson’s campaign told our media partner WMTW on Tuesday that there are no merits to White’s claims.

“Republicans are so worried that Susan Collins is about to lose, they’re resorting to cheap tricks,” BJ McCollister, one of Jackson’s advisors, said in a statement. “Troy Jackson will harness the grassroots energy in Maine and defeat Susan Collins.”

White asked the Secretary of State’s Office to investigate the issue, determine whether Jackson satisfies the statutory requirement of being a “qualified person” and issue a written public determination before accepting or certifying any replacement nomination.

The Secretary of State’s Office released its list of replacement candidates for the Nov. 3 general election Monday evening, and Jackson was listed as the replacement for Graham Platner. Platner, the winner of the Democratic primary for Senate, dropped out of the race on July 8 following allegations of sexual assault.

In his letter, White said that if the Secretary of State’s Office concluded that Jackson’s candidacy is lawful, the public deserves a clear explanation of where Maine law authorizes that exception. The Secretary of State’s Office did not include such a statement in its news release announcing the list of replacement candidates for the general election.

The Maine Democratic Party had until 5 p.m. Monday, July 27, to name a replacement for Platner, who formally withdrew from the Senate race on July 10. According to the Secretary of State’s Office, political parties will only be able to replace a candidate beyond July 27 due to the death of a candidate or “a catastrophic illness, condition or injury that has permanently and continuously incapacitated the candidate that would prevent performance of the duties of the office sought.”