‘Foot Soldiers Of Democracy’: Belmont’s State Senate Recount Reaffirms Brownsberger’s Victory

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Photo: The state senate recount at Belmont Town Hall auditorium

Call it a day of direct democracy.

On Sept. 10, Belmont witnessed democracy in action in the Town Hall auditorium. For more than four hours, a roomful of volunteers, observers, town officials, and a candidate participated in the re-enumeration of the Democratic Party primary election for state senator held on Sept. 1.

In the first go-around of voting the previous week, incumbent and Belmont resident Will Brownsberger eked out a 34-vote advantage district-wide over first-time candidate Daniel Lander of Boston: 12,291 to 12,257. As the closeness of the outcome was within the right to ask for a recount, both candidates submitted signatures from the four communities – Belmont and Watertown and precincts in Boston and Cambridge – represented in the Suffolk and Middlesex District. On Election Night, Brownsberger easily won his hometown, 4,010 to 1,809, although he lost the other three communities he had been representing since 2011.

Registrars of Voters Chair Bob McGaw

Pairs of community volunteers sat at 20 card tables to re-tally each of the 5,824 ballots submitted at the town’s eight voting precincts and those that were submitted early and through the mail. Managed by Town Clerk Ellen Cushman and her staff and overseen by the Belmont’s Registrars of Voters, each candidate was allowed two “campaign agents” to oversee the recount, and note any challenges to the decision by the reader. And in the hallway outside the hall, Brownsberger waited for the results to be called. 

Each table received a stack of 50 votes, which were counted to be approved by the Registrars, chaired by Bob McGaw in his final year in the post. Kristen Gagalis, an associate with Anderson & Kreiger, kept the proceedings moving by resolving any procedural questions and reminding those assembled to keep the chitchat to a minimum. 

With a steady rhythm, carts of ballots were brought from the Town Clerk’s storage room – once the town’s lockup – and numbers were calculated and approved. And with each enumerated result, the vote advantage Brownsberger held in Belmont never varied by more than a single vote up or down. By 1:30 p.m., all the ballots were read and reaffirmed; Brownsberger would add two votes to his tally, and Landers three extra votes. The final numbers: 4,012 to 1,812, a 2,200-vote margin. 

By the end of the recount, the attorneys for both campaigns had high praise for the process and how it was conducted. 

“This really is what democracy is all about. You guys are the foot soldiers of democracy. You worked hard, and we really appreciate it, and I think everyone should,” said Brownsberger’s Dennis Newman, whose history with recounts included being the lead Democratic attorney observing the critical Palm Beach, Florida, review of votes in the historic Bush/Gore presidential recount of 2000.

“Today was part of our democracy,” said Lander’s attorney, John Gannon. “We fought 250 years ago to have that right to vote, the right to be heard in a democratic process. So this is part and parcel of that process, and I’m truly honored to be part of the process.”

On Friday, the Secretary of the Commonwealth certified the election, and Brownsberger is returning to Beacon Hill with a 35-vote advantage: Brownsberger 12,291, Lander 12,257.

The contest between the long-serving legislator and a neophyte candidate had its origins in a successful effort by Brownsberger and other legislators to deny an effort in 2024 by Boston Mayor Michelle Wu to temporarily raise the commercial real estate tax rate to ease the tax burden on residential taxes. Many saw the rare primary challenges to the long-standing legislators as Wu’s atttempt – with campaign donations and use of political connections – to send a message of her disapproval.

It was Brownsberger who had the final word.

“I wanted to share the good news right away: the recount is complete, and we have prevailed with a final margin of 35 votes,” said Brownsberger in a statement released on Thursday afternoon after the completion of the recount in Cambridge. Watertown and Boston completed their review on Wednesday.

“I am so very grateful for all your work and support in this campaign. I look forward to continuing to serve all of the people in my district, and I am eager to get back to work.”

In his statement, Lander said while the race “did not end as we’d hoped, I am so deeply proud of the campaign we built. I know we have woken up the State Senate and sent a message loud and clear that the days of delay and inaction must end now. Despite the establishment’s best efforts, this campaign won three of the four communities of this district. After being outspent two to one, our grassroots coalition made clear this district is hungry for change.”

Registrars of Voters: Ellen O’Brien Cushman, Ex-Officio, Paul Minor, Kate Foster, and Bob McGaw

Update: Too Close To Call As Brownsberger Carves Out 61 Vote Advantage Over Lander In State Senate Race

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Photo: Will Brownsberger

On a night that saw one of the candidates announce he would probably loss than reverse that prediction an hour later and the other declaring victory no matter the decision, just who will be the next state senator representing Belmont remains up in the air.

With 100 percent of precincts reporting, 15-year incumbent Will Brownsberger has a minuscule 61-vote advantage – 11,997 to 11,936 – over his opponent first-time candidate Daniel Lander, a former policy advisor for Boston Mayor Michelle Wu.

Neither Associated Press or the Boston Globe have called the Democratic primary race for the Suffolk & Middlesex Senate seat as of 5 a.m., Wednesday, Sept. 2.

If Brownsberger does retain his seat he first won in Nov. 2011, it will be due in large part to the strong showing of support from his hometown voters. Belmont was the only segment of the districted he won, as the long-time legislator come up second in Boston, Cambridge and Watertown to the first-time candidate.

Brownsberger took the Town of Homes 3,974 to 1,793, a 2,181 margin that allowed the two decade incumbent to create enough of a cushion to stay in the lead for the majority of the night.

But even after Belmont and Watertown reported, Brownsberger surprisingly told campaign supporters who gathered at Donahue’s Bar and Grill in Watertown that it was not going to be his night.

“[The results are] not looking that good tonight,” Brownsberger told supporter before 10 p.m. “We might have lost,” Brownsberger said, reported the Boston Globe. “I’m not quite saying that yet, but as is my way upfront, that’s what I’m seeing out there.”

A Brownsberger backer from Belmont who attended the victory celebration, said the candidate’s “forthright” announcement took a large segment of the smallish crowd by surprise. “It is sooo early and the [reported] numbers said he is in the lead,” the supporter’s text. “[Brownsberger] must know it’s already over.”

But at the 11th hour, Brownsberger told the crowd his earlier prediction did not include complete Belmont returns – Belmont Town Clerk Ellen Cushman announced the returns at 9:16 p.m. – and the vote count was now “in his favor.”

Lander entered the race with the endorsement and backing of his former boss Wu, who has been in a nasty political spat with Belmont’s veteran legislator over 2024 legislation in which he helped block a tax bill to temporarily shifted more of Boston’s property tax burden on to commercial owners.

Brownsberger would hold a 1,500 vote lead at 11 p.m. only to see the advantage slip away with each Boston precinct being called.

With Brownsberger holding on to a tight 325-vote lead after Boston’s 35 precincts were called, Cambridge votes were the final ones tallied sometime after 2 a.m. And while Landers carried his one-time hometown, he couldn’t close the gap.

It is uncertain if a recount is required or if Lander will ask for one.

In the other legislative race for the 24th Middlesex (The ABC District has it covers Arlington, Belmont, and Cambridge,} state Rep. Dave Rogers used his tireless retail campaign style to return to Beacon Hill as he defeated another first-time candidate Nomita Ganguly, 6,906 to 2,867. Rogers received 3,462 votes to Ganguly’s 2,043.

Middlesex District Attorney and Belmont’s own Marian Ryan will continue to uphold the law as she defeated David Marc Solet easily.

Brownsberger To Be Challenged For Senate Seat By Boston Resident With Belmont Tiess

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Photo: Will Brownsberger

For the first time since winning a special election in 2011, State Sen. Will Brownsberger will have a significant Democratic challenger for his 2nd Suffolk & Middlesex Senate District seat in the upcoming state party primary election in September 2026.

Daniel Lander, a senior policy advisor to Boston Mayor Michele Wu and the chair of Boston’s Ward 21 Democratic Committee that represents Allston, Brighton, and Fenway, has pulled papers to run for the seat Brownsberger has held for the past 15 years.

“The communities of this district are under attack from the Trump Administration. We need a State Senate that stands up for our knowledge economy, brings down costs, and isn’t stuck defending a broken status quo,” said Lander in an opening announcement of his campaign. “I look forward to hearing the concerns and dreams of residents and sharing my vision for an affordable, livable Massachusetts over the months to come.”

The Suffolk and Middlesex District includes most of the Fenway neighborhood and the Allston and Brighton neighborhoods of Boston, Watertown, Belmont, and West Cambridge.

First published in POLITICO’s Massachusetts Playbook newsletter on Dec. 10, Lander campaign is closely linked to a political squabble between Wu and Brownsberger over the mayor’s attempt to shift a more significant amount of property taxes onto businesses, in an attempt to reduce an expected 13 percent tax increase on residential homeowners in fiscal 2026. Brownsberger is one of the legislators working to stave off a vote on Wu’s initiative, which requires legislative approval. Local reporting points to Wu’s support of several candidates to stand against those legislators.

A graduate of Harvard College and the Kennedy School of Government, Lander has led a land audit of Boston that identified locations where hundreds of new affordable homes can be built while reducing red tape by authoring and implementing an executive order to accelerate the permitting process by 50 percent.

A native of Huron Village in West Cambridge, Lander has a strong connection to Belmont, being a member of Temple Beth El Center on Concord Avenue since he was a child. Lander’s father is Eric Lander, geneticist, mathematician, and molecular biologist known for his leadership of the Human Genome Project and as the founding director of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. 

Usually the bi-annual state party primaries for both of Belmont’s Beacon Hill representatives are pro forma affairs, as the two long-time seat holders have been challenged once in the past decade when Jennifer Fries ran against State Rep. Dave Roger in 2020.

After the last Massachusetts legislative redistricting in 2021 that took effect in 2023, Belmont currently represents 25 percent of the population in the 2nd district, behind Boston (43 percent) and Watertown (32 percent), making for an interesting race if it remains a two-candidate contest. With the incumbent and challenger having natural constituencies, it would likely be that the race could be decided by Watertown voters, although Brownsberger resided in Watertown before moving to the “Town of Homes” in the early 1990s.

One observer noted the primary’s date of Sept. 1 will likely limit the participation of Boston voters in the student-heavy district as it coincides with the first days of classes and moving into dorms and apartments.