Ed Flanagan, a former state senator and state auditor who was in a debilitating car accident in 2005 died Friday, according to Rep. Mary Sullivan (D-Burlington), a longtime friend.
Flanagan, 66, had been living in recent years in a New Hampshire nursing home.
As a Democratic state senator representing Chittenden County from 2005-2011 and as state auditor from 1993-2001, Flanagan was known for his ardent liberal views. He was the first openly gay statewide elected official in the country. He ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate in 2000 against incumbent Jim Jeffords, who was then a Republican.
Sullivan, who met Flanagan when they were in their 20s, said she remembered him as a loyal friend who was good at telling jokes. She was on her way to visit Flanagan, who she knew was failing, when he died, she said.
Flanagan suffered from a traumatic brain injury and physical ailments as the result of the November 2005 crash. He had been on his way home from Montpelier wh
en his car slid off Interstate 89 in Richmond and into a ravine. He hung upside down in subfreezing temperatures for 18 hours before being rescued. He spent three weeks in a coma.
At the time, his older brother, Robert, called his recovery “miraculous.” Flanagan returned to the legislature in 2006 and was twice reelected to serve two-year terms.
Though Flanagan functioned well at times, he also struggled physically and mentally.
In 2009, he was accused of masturbating in the Greater Burlington YMCA men’s wellness center. No criminal charges were filed, but Flanagan did not seek reelection to the Senate in 2010.
In recent months, Flanagan had been using a wheelchair and his health was in decline, Sullivan said. He is survived by his partner, Isaac Lustgarten. His family plans to hold a memorial service in Burlington, Sullivan said.
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The statement about the YMCA incident was unwarranted and distasteful. When someone passes, we celebrate their life and accomplishments. Show some dignity and respect please!
Add my voice to the greek chorus of disapproval. 7Days styles itself a news source. Have they forgotten the 1st Principle of reportage? Define An Editorial PositionTailor The News To That. Our heroes are only and always unblemished, incorruptible, fearless champions of altruism. Our villains are hopelessly crass, doomed to everlasting discredit. Reporting facts in contravention of legend strikes at the very core of a free press, whose job it is to reinforce our preconceptions and relieve us from having to think critically about subtlety, human frailty and social complexity. 7Days needs to take seriously its obligation to defend us from disconcerting information.
I continue to be disappointed in Doug Hoffer, who used to be “a numbers guy” diligently digesting numerical evidence with mathematic impartiality, following wherever it led without fear, favor, emotion or prejudice. Increasingly, preaching suits him, supporting his sermons with such unintelligent blather as word count = importance.
Well, I’m a word guy, so let’s digest his words.
‘tasteless’: contrary to or regardless of sthetic standards, lacking judgement.
‘gratuitous’: unjustified, lacking reason.
In combination, he’s expressing disdain for mentioning one incident in the long and distinguished career of an esteemed public figure on the grounds that it’s unpleasant and irrelevant. Others have as much as said that TBI renders all subsequent actions proof against criticism, even scrutiny. What’s true? The incident is far from irrelevant, mostly because of how and by whom it was reported, and because of Ed’s by then characteristic disputation, first of its veracity, then of its significance. That was the precipitating factor finally convincing his friends to convince Ed to relinquish his life of public service reasonably gracefully. It’s unpleasant to prudes, and people attempting to rewrite history. Including it in a biography may not be sthetically or politically pleasing, but the judgement applied was, and should have been, neither of those. It was journalistic. This isn’t a eulogy.