Former U.S. Congressman Dies At His Home In Maine

Joe Brennan, a former U.S. Congressman and two-term Governor of the State of Maine, has reportedly died at the age of 89. Brennan reportedly died in his home located in Portland, Maine on Friday evening.

Brennan, a Democrat, had served in many positions of government throughout his career, including county district attorney and state attorney general, in addition to state lawmaker, governor and congressman.

The New York Post reports on his death,

Democrat Joseph E. Brennan, whose hardscrabble childhood shaped his working-class views in a political career that included two terms as Maine’s governor and two terms in the US House, died Friday evening at his home in Portland.

He was 89.

Brennan died with his wife at his side a few blocks from the third-floor tenement housing on Munjoy Hill where his Irish immigrant parents raised a family of eight children, Frank O’Hara, a longtime friend, said Saturday.

Brennan’s experience in that neighborhood, a working-class melting pot, stayed with him when he entered politics with a campaign for the Maine Legislature at age 29, O’Hara said.

An Army veteran, Brennan attended Boston College under the GI Bill and graduated from the University of Maine Law School.

The New York Post

Former Democratic Gov. Joe Baldacc said the following about Brennan’s death in his Portland, Maine home,

“He was a man of the highest integrity, who led Maine through difficult times. He believed that he had an obligation to make things better, and he lived that ideal through his commitment to public education and improving the state’s economy.”

Former Democratic Gov. Joe Baldacc

Brennan served in government through many different avenues, and it appears that he was nearly universally respected by his peers. I think that most individuals would be more than happy to leave behind the legacy that Brennan did.

Rest in peace Joe Brennan!