Former Maine Senate President Troy Jackson received tens of thousands of dollars in taxpayer-funded travel and lodging payments while maintaining his official residence nearly 300 miles from Augusta, even after purchasing a home just minutes from the State House. The Maine Wire drove the route, spoke with residents in Jackson’s hometown and found that one central question remains unanswered.
Six hours after leaving Augusta, The Maine Wire finally arrived in Allagash.
By then, the State House felt a long way away.
Interstate highway had given way to rural roads. The cities and larger towns of central Maine were long behind us. Traffic had thinned, cell service had become less predictable, and the road stretched deeper into northern Aroostook County toward one of Maine’s most remote communities.
Nearly 300 miles separated where the trip began from where it ended.
For years, former Maine Senate President Troy Jackson made that distance important to Maine taxpayers.
Jackson, now the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, maintained throughout his legislative career that Allagash was his permanent home. That meant traveling extraordinary distances while conducting legislative business in Augusta, and receiving substantial taxpayer-funded travel and lodging payments along the way.
But in September 2019, while serving as Senate president, Jackson and his longtime partner purchased a house in Augusta just 2.1 miles from the State House.
The FHA-backed mortgage they signed required the Augusta property to be used as their “principal residence.”
Jackson nevertheless continued to identify Allagash as his residence for legislative and electoral purposes.
And taxpayer-funded legislative payments associated with his service continued.
The arrangement eventually prompted an ethics complaint and a political controversy in 2023. The Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices ultimately voted unanimously to take no further action on a complaint questioning whether Jackson had submitted a false Allagash address in filings with the commission.
But that proceeding did not determine whether Jackson actually made every trip underlying his legislative travel payments.
Three years later, with Jackson now asking Maine voters to send him to Washington, The Maine Wire returned to the road between Augusta and Allagash.
And in Jackson’s hometown, the controversy hasn’t been forgotten.
Allagash residents Dan Daigle and Kim McBreairty spoke with The Maine Wire on camera about Jackson, the reimbursement controversy and why they believe it raises questions about his integrity.
Their opinions do not establish that Jackson improperly received taxpayer money.
But Daigle and McBreairty know something anyone who has never made the drive may have difficulty appreciating.
They know just how far Allagash is from Augusta.
Now, so does The Maine Wire.
Nearly 600 Miles Round Trip
The Maine Wire’s drive from Augusta to Allagash took more than six hours under the conditions encountered during the trip.
Turning around and making the same journey back would mean roughly 600 miles on the road and potentially more than 12 hours behind the wheel.
That fact alone doesn’t prove anything improper occurred.
It does put the numbers involved in Jackson’s legislative payments into perspective.
During the 2023 ethics proceedings, Jackson told state officials that he attempted to return to Allagash on weekends while the Legislature was in session.
Ethics Commission staff calculated that if Jackson made 40 round trips between Augusta and Allagash in one year, he would have traveled approximately 24,000 miles.
Based on The Maine Wire’s recent six-plus-hour drive, 40 such round trips could theoretically represent roughly 480 hours behind the wheel if each leg took approximately six hours.
That is the equivalent of 20 complete 24-hour days spent driving.
The calculation is an illustration, not evidence that Jackson actually made 40 trips or that any payment was improper. Travel times also vary depending on weather, traffic, road conditions and route.
But it demonstrates the extraordinary scale of the travel Jackson said came with representing Maine’s northernmost Senate district.
And it leads to a simple question:
How often did he actually make the drive?
Payments Increased After Augusta Home Purchase
Public records previously obtained by The Maine Wire showed Jackson received $17,128.11 in legislative reimbursements and allowances in 2019.
In 2020, after purchasing the Augusta house, those payments increased to $33,876.78.
In 2021, they totaled $31,500.17.
In 2022, they rose to $40,554.22.
The Maine Wire previously reported that Jackson received more than $160,000 in legislative reimbursements and allowances between 2019 and 2023.
Those numbers require an important distinction.
The entire amount was not mileage.
The payments included different categories of legislative allowances and reimbursements associated with travel, lodging and Jackson’s work in Augusta. Many were allowances rather than reimbursements requiring receipts.
More detailed records show that in 2020 Jackson received $9,837.08 categorized as auto mileage, $4,028 for hotels and $3,061.08 in “mileage in lieu of housing.”
In 2021, he received $6,039.60 in auto mileage, $6,918.12 in mileage in lieu of housing and $1,906.45 for hotel rooms and lodging.
In 2022, records showed $9,621.45 in in-state auto mileage, $5,231.30 in mileage in lieu of housing and $4,289.72 for hotel rooms and lodging.
Jackson received more legislative reimbursement than any other Maine lawmaker in each of those three years, according to records previously reviewed by The Maine Wire.
There is an obvious reason a senator from Allagash could incur substantially higher travel costs than lawmakers living in Portland, Lewiston or Augusta.
Allagash is extraordinarily far from the State House.
But Jackson also owned a house 2.1 miles away.
The House in Augusta
Jackson and his longtime partner purchased the Augusta house in September 2019.
The property was financed using an FHA-backed mortgage containing an occupancy provision stating that the borrowers would occupy the property and use it as their principal residence.
That provision became central to the subsequent controversy because Jackson continued identifying Allagash as his residence.
Jackson has consistently maintained that Allagash never stopped being his permanent home.
During the 2023 Ethics Commission proceeding, Jackson described himself as a lifelong Aroostook County resident and said Allagash was where he lived, voted and raised his children. He also pointed to his hunting and fishing licenses and homestead property exemption as evidence of his continuing ties to the town.
Jackson told commissioners that serving as Senate president required him to spend considerable time in Augusta and that purchasing a house there made financial sense as housing costs increased.
He also acknowledged that when asked during the mortgage process where he spent most of his time, he answered Augusta.
Jackson told commissioners that answer was accurate because he had just emerged from an eight-month legislative session and had, in fact, spent the majority of his time in Augusta.
His argument was that Augusta was where his job frequently required him to stay, while Allagash remained his permanent home.
The distinction matters.
Legal domicile for election purposes is not necessarily determined simply by where someone sleeps the greatest number of nights.
But the combination of Jackson’s Augusta property, the FHA principal-residence provision, his continued Allagash residency and the substantial legislative payments inevitably raised questions.
Those questions eventually landed before Maine’s Ethics Commission.
What the Ethics Commission Did — and Didn’t — Decide
Then-Rep. John Andrews (R-Paris) asked the Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices to investigate whether Jackson had submitted a false Allagash address in filings with the commission.
On Oct. 25, 2023, commissioners voted 5-0 to take no further action.
That decision is an important part of the record and Jackson’s defense.
The commission’s proceeding concerned Jackson’s residency representations in filings under its jurisdiction.
It did not constitute an audit establishing that Jackson made every Augusta-Allagash trip associated with legislative payments.
The distinction is critical.
Saying the Ethics Commission “cleared” every aspect of Jackson’s travel controversy would go considerably further than what commissioners actually decided.
The commission declined to pursue the residency matter.
The underlying question of Jackson’s taxpayer-funded travel remained.
Who Was Checking the Expenses?
There is another part of the story that deserves renewed examination.
Jackson wasn’t merely a state senator.
He was president of the Maine Senate, one of the most powerful positions in state government.
During the Ethics Commission proceeding, Andrews specifically raised concerns about Jackson signing off on his own reimbursements and about some payments not requiring receipts.
The Maine Wire previously reported that legislative rules required requests for certain allowances and reimbursements outside legislative or authorized committee meetings to be approved by the appropriate presiding officer.
For the Senate, that was Jackson.
The arrangement raises questions extending beyond Jackson himself.
What safeguards existed?
Who independently reviewed the Senate president’s expenses?
Which payments required documentation showing that travel actually occurred?
Which were allowances calculated according to a legislator’s distance from Augusta?
And what, if anything, was done to verify that the travel upon which payments were based actually occurred?
Those questions become particularly relevant because Jackson maintained accommodations in Augusta while the payments were being made.
In Allagash, the Questions Become Personal
On a spreadsheet, 285 or 300 miles is just a number.
In Allagash, it isn’t.
During The Maine Wire’s reporting trip, Daigle and McBreairty spoke on camera about Jackson, the travel controversy and why they believe it raises questions about his integrity.
Their concerns are their own and do not establish that Jackson improperly received taxpayer money.
But their perspective comes from the community Jackson has long identified as his home, and from people who understand exactly what traveling between Allagash and Augusta entails.
Watch Daigle and McBreairty discuss their concerns below:
For people living in Allagash, six hours each way isn’t an accounting abstraction.
It’s an entire day on the road.
Jackson has built much of his political identity around Allagash, his family’s history there and the challenges faced by people living hundreds of miles from Augusta.
That is precisely why what happened on the road between those two places matters.
Jackson Has Defended His Travel and Residency
Jackson has previously defended both his Allagash residency and the sacrifices required to represent northern Aroostook County from Augusta.
He told commissioners that Allagash was his home and the place to which he intended to return.
Jackson also explained that being Senate president required substantial time in Augusta.
Retired Maine Supreme Judicial Court Justice Donald Alexander, who appeared with Jackson during the Ethics Commission proceeding, argued that Maine residency law focuses heavily on the home to which a candidate intends to return when temporarily absent.
Commissioners ultimately agreed there was insufficient reason for their agency to investigate further.
There is also nothing inherently unusual about a northern Maine legislator maintaining accommodations in Augusta.
For someone living nearly 300 miles away, commuting to the State House every morning is plainly unrealistic.
Jackson’s situation attracted scrutiny because several circumstances converged: the distance from Augusta, the taxpayer-funded payments, his purchase of an Augusta house, the principal-residence language in the FHA mortgage and his continued identification of Allagash as his permanent home.
And unlike questions of opinion or political judgment, Jackson’s legislative payment history is something public records may be able to illuminate.
The Records Could Provide the Answer
The Maine Wire intends to seek the underlying legislative travel, allowance and reimbursement records and excise tax information from Jackson’s tenure as Senate president through Maine’s Freedom of Access Act.
Those records could provide considerably more detail than annual payment totals.
Depending on what records were retained and what documentation was required, they could reveal dates, mileage calculations, stated purposes for travel, amounts paid and information about who authorized particular payments.
Those dates could then be compared with legislative calendars and other public records.
The documents may support Jackson’s account.
They may reveal nothing improper at all.
Or they may raise additional questions.
That is why the records matter.
The issue isn’t whether it is physically possible to drive from Augusta to Allagash.
The Maine Wire just did it.
The question is what taxpayers paid for, how those payments were calculated and what safeguards existed when the recipient was also president of the Maine Senate.
The Maine Wire will report what the underlying records show after obtaining and reviewing them.
From Augusta to Washington
The questions carry additional weight today.
Jackson is no longer simply representing Allagash in the Maine Legislature.
He is asking Maine voters to send him to the United States Senate.
Old controversies don’t automatically become new scandals because someone seeks higher office.
Nor does an unanswered question constitute evidence of wrongdoing.
Jackson is entitled to both of those distinctions.
But voters are also entitled to scrutinize how a candidate seeking federal office handled taxpayer money while holding one of the most powerful positions in Maine government.
The Ethics Commission considered Jackson’s residency filings and unanimously declined to pursue the matter further.
It did not conduct an audit establishing whether every trip underlying Jackson’s legislative travel payments actually occurred.
That question remains.
The Maine Wire recently started at the State House and followed the road north to Jackson’s hometown.
Nearly 300 miles.
More than six hours.
And after finally reaching Allagash, one thing was beyond dispute.
It’s a very long way home.
