Senator Joseph C. Brannigan is currently serving his fifth term in the Maine Senate representing Senate District 9. District 9 includes part of Westbrook and part of Portland. Senator Brannigan has previously served seven terms in the Maine House of Representatives and has chaired the Business and Commerce Committee, Judiciary Committee, Marine Resources Committee, Housing and Economic Development Committee, Appropriation and Financial Affairs Committee and Transportation Committee. He is currently the chair of the Health and Human Services Committee and a member of the State and Local Government Committee.

Senator Brannigan attended Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Washington DC in 1955 following a tour with the United States Navy from 1951-1955. Following his undergraduate education Senator Brannigan attended St. John Seminary in Brighton, Massachusetts and became an Ordained Maine Diocesan Priest serving in both South Portland and Fairfield and as a chaplain at the University of Southern Maine. He then continued on to complete his Masters in Counseling Education at the University of Southern Maine and subsequently became a licensed social worker.

Senator Brannigan is very committed to his community. He is involved in the City of Portland and United Way’s Emergency Shelter Assessment Committee, the Legislative Mental Health Committee of Maine Association of Mental Health Services, Cumberland Service Network, and has been a trustee of The Park Danforth and the chair of the State Correction Facilities Improvement Advisory Committee.

Currently Senator Brannigan is the Executive Director of Shalom House, Inc. – a position he has proudly held for the past 33 years. In that time, Shalom House, Inc. has grown from a halfway house with 15 beds to multiple buildings and services serving more than 600 people annually. The model he has created for mental health housing and services for adults is on the cutting edge of psychosocial rehabilitation.