Gov. Janet Mills (D) issued a statement Saturday, mourning the passing of former Gov. Joseph Brennan, a Democrat who governed the state for eight years, from 1979 to 1987, and represented Maine’s First Congressional District, from 1987 to 1991, throughout a lengthy career.
“Through five decades of public service – as a state legislator, County Attorney, Attorney General, Member of Congress, Federal Maritime Commissioner, and as Maine’s 70th Governor — Joe Brennan never stopped working to improve the lives of Maine people. The proud son of Irish immigrants, Gov. Brennan’s career was guided by the core values of hard work, fairness, friendship, and a drive to help those who needed a helping hand, values which he learned growing up on working class Munjoy Hill in Portland,” said Gov. Mills.
Gov. Brennan died peacefully in his home on Munjoy Hill, Portland, on Saturday at the age of 89.
As a young man, Brennan served in the army, before going on to become an attorney and kick-starting his political career.
Throughout his career, Brennan served in the Maine House and Senate for years before moving on to become the state’s Attorney General for four years.
Following his term as Attorney General, Brennan was governor for eight years, from 1979-1987.
He later served as Maine’s CD 1 representative in the U.S. House, and ran for U.S. senate in 1996, but lost to Sen. Angus King (I-Maine).
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Mills credited Brennan with the takeoff of her political career, when he appointed her as the state’s first female District Attorney when he was serving as Attorney General.
“Governor Brennan took a chance on a young woman lawyer, appointing me as Maine’s first woman District Attorney, over the objections of a number of men at the time. That appointment, little did I know then, put me on the path years later to become the first woman to serve as Governor of Maine,” said Mills.
I met Joe Brennan back in the early 1980’s and had a lunch with him. He was the classic old school politician who remembered people’s names and when meeting someone new for the first time always seemed to be able to name a person they both knew. I don’t recall Brennan doing anything horrible by today’s democratic party standards. Times were different back then.
Nothing horrible? Wasn’t he responsible for enacting the Maine Income Tax after first lying about it?
Joe Brennan was in my opinion the last good democrat governor that Maine had. After he went to congress he ran again for governor against Olympia Snows Hubby who lied about the financial condition of Maine in his reelection campaign. Brennan was sadly not reelected, and we got a swamp rat instead. I left the state shortly after this not having to live through this swamp creature, King, and most of Baldacci. Mills, if she was even dully elected not dominion elected has been the worst governor of Maine ever that I can remember in my six plus decades of life.
Brennan was a Kennedy type democrat that had common sense, and conservative spending policies leaving Maine with a two hundred and fifty million dollar surplus when he left office. Brennan was a good governor, and a good democrat when that was possible. Condolences to his family, he was a good man, and he was good for Maine.