Republican Lawmaker Asks Secretary of State to Investigate Whether Troy Jackson Is Eligible for Democratic U.S. Senate Nomination

Just hours before Maine Democrats are scheduled to meet in Bangor to select a replacement nominee for the U.S. Senate, a Republican state lawmaker is asking Secretary of State Shenna Bellows to determine whether former Senate President Troy Jackson is legally eligible to receive the nomination at all...

In a letter dated July 24, State Rep. James White (R-Guilford) formally requested that Bellows immediately investigate whether Jackson—or any candidate who sought and lost a race for another federal, state, or county office in Maine’s June primary, is legally eligible to become a replacement nominee under Maine election law.

Nothingburger.

He points specifically to Title 21-A, Section 331, which provides 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.”

Jackson isn't running for more than one office.

He lost the primary, which means he's out of the election process. Duh!

Unlike several states, Maine does not have an explicit “sore loser” statute that expressly bars a candidate defeated in a primary from later appearing on the general election ballot for another office. Instead, White argues that existing provisions of Title 21-A, when read together, effectively create that prohibition.

Maine law also provides political parties with a process to replace nominees who withdraw after winning a primary, but the statutes do not specifically address whether someone who lost a different statewide primary may be selected as the replacement nominee. That ambiguity has become the focus of White’s request.

White is grand-standing. Title 21-A addresses people running for election. Jackson was defeated and, by definition, is no longer running for office.

This interpretion hinges on whether a primary is part of a larger process of an “election”. A primary selects a nommiee for election.

I am not a lawyer, but I have reviewed the state law and have not seen it is clear one way or the other.

Various parts of the law seem to contrdict each other.

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