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The recent obituaries of my longtime friend David T. Flanagan offer well-deserved accolades for his business successes but overlook a critical aspect of his contributions to Maine society — his decades of public service across seemingly impassable political minefields.
America’s political landscape is filled with daily examples of political competitiveness that has degenerated into sickeningly personal, vicious attacks based solely on the other guy’s party affiliation. Conventional strategy rewards the toxic concept that crossing party lines is political death.
Yet, take a look at a few highlights of Flanagan’s public service record. At various points in his remarkable career, Flanagan was: chief counsel to Gov. Joseph Brennan, a Democrat; general counsel to the U.S. Senate committee investigating the government’s response to Hurricane Katrina, appointed by Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican; and treasurer of the first Maine gubernatorial campaign of Eliot Cutler, an independent. Over decades of friendship, Flanagan never once asked me with which party I was registered. It didn’t matter.
There are lots of successful CEOs in the business world. But we can count on one hand the number of American corporate chieftains who serve their communities in the public sector the way Flanagan did. Many of us complain about how our political discourse has become an endless hyper-partisan knife fight. The solution is to recognize, encourage, groom and support the next generation of Flanagans if and when we see them.
Chet Lunner
Cape Elizabeth