I was greatly saddened to see in today’s Globe that state senator Charles E. Shannon, Jr. (D-Winchester) has passed away, apparently due to complications arising from his ongoing treatment for cancer.
Shannon was a Lexington police officer for many years before health problems forced him to retire from that line of work. He then entered the state senate as a Republican, but switched parties in 1996. He was a skilled practitioner of local politics, but also became a reliable progressive voice – recently he voted against amending the state Constitution to ban gay marriage, and although his illness kept him from voting on the stem cell bill, he wrote a letter that was read on the Senate floor during the debate encouraging his colleagues to support the bill and noting that the bill would "help save lives."
He will be greatly missed by his constituents, of whom I am proud to have been one.
Senator Shannon was a good man and has a great staff that has worked hard on behalf of his district and the people of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. I would love to see former Somerville Mayor Dorothy Kelly Gay continue his hard work on constituent service and leadership in the community. Shannon Chief of Staff has worked on a number of Mayor Gay’s campaigns and also served as a city hall staffer while Gay was in office.