Troy Jackson Confused By Nepotism Policy In U.S. Senate Handbook
Allagash relatives say the rule appears to have been written with one particular cousin in mind.
Illustration based on Maine Public U.S. Senate debate, Your Vote 2026
WASHINGTON. Senator-elect Troy Jackson's orientation for the U.S. Senate reportedly stalled Thursday when staff reached the page of the employee handbook covering the hiring of family members, according to relatives who said they were waiting by the phone in Allagash.
Federal law bars members of Congress from putting relatives on the office payroll. Family members said the rule came as a surprise, since in Allagash it is very hard to hire anyone who is not related to you.
"I feel like this is targeting my cousin," said Wayne Jackson, 52, a fictional cousin who had already bought a suit at the Ocean State Job Lot in Presque Isle. "I was going to be Chief of Staff. I had the title written on my truck."
According to a fictional orientation staffer who asked not to be named, the senator-elect read the section several times and asked whether second cousins count. The staffer said they do. He then asked about cousins by marriage, and the staffer said they also count.
"Then it's going to be a very small office," said Arlene Michaud, 61, of Fort Kent, who described herself as a cousin on the Michaud side. "Up home that rules out about the whole town and half of St. Francis."
Relatives have proposed a workaround in which each family member hires a cousin of a different senator. Wayne said he had reached out to a Murkowski in Alaska but had not heard back.
Family members said they remained proud and would support the new senator in any unpaid capacity, which Wayne described as exactly how they used to support him at the mill.
At press time, Wayne had removed Chief of Staff from his truck and replaced it with Constituent.
