Brownsberger squeaks by as governor's race picks up steam

The primary season is finally in the rearview mirror, but the political message from Massachusetts voters is likely to linger on Beacon Hill as lawmakers turn toward November and the unfinished business of the legislative session.

All eyes were on one of the closest races of the cycle, which ended with Senate President Pro Tempore William Brownsberger holding onto his seat by 35 votes after a districtwide recount.

Brownsberger, a Belmont Democrat and one of the Senate's highest-ranking members, finished the Suffolk and Middlesex District primary ahead of Boston challenger Daniel Lander, who had the backing of Boston Mayor Michelle Wu. The race initially swung from a three-vote Lander lead on election night to a 34-vote Brownsberger advantage by the following Friday, prompting both candidates to seek recounts.

The recount ultimately changed little. Brownsberger picked up one vote on his margin, finishing with 12,293 votes to Lander's 12,258.

Though it didn't end in victory, Lander said the campaign had "woken up the State Senate and sent a message loud and clear that the days of delay and inaction must end now."

The drama surrounding the race was matched by the show of institutional support for Brownsberger.

Eleven senators were on hand at Boston City Hall on Wednesday as election workers went through ballots, with many serving as poll watchers for the incumbent. Among them were Senate Ways and Means Chair Michael Rodrigues, other senators from across the state, and staff for Senate President Karen Spilka.

Worcester-area Sen. Robyn Kennedy, who attended the recount, offered a pointed response to Wu's argument that her campaign had sent a message to Beacon Hill.

"Will is a strong voice in the Senate," Kennedy said, per The Boston Globe. "And if the mayor wants to pass legislation in the Senate, it’s not about running races against individual senators; it’s about building relationships with all 40 senators. My phone line is always available if she wants to start doing that."

Rodrigues was similarly blunt, saying Wu has less influence in the chamber than perhaps she believes.

"The Legislature is a people business," Rodrigues said. "The more bridges you build, the more successful you’ll be. The more bridges you burn, the less successful you’ll be."

Senate President Karen Spilka, meanwhile, used the end of the primary cycle to urge lawmakers to move on.

She congratulated Brownsberger and Nick Collins on their victories, along with Persis Yu, the only challenger to defeat an incumbent senator in a primary, and open-seat winners Reps. Erika Uyterhoeven and Kate Lipper-Garabedian.

"There was a great deal of time, money and political energy spent this year trying to remake the Senate," Spilka said. "Voters had their say."

Her conclusion: "Now it’s time to put the primary campaign politics behind us."

In the Ninth Bristol District, a recount affirmed that only 14 voters determined which Democratic nominee would take on a Republican in the only truly competitive district in the state. Edward Pacheco held onto his 14-vote victory over Stephen Medeiros in the Democratic primary after a recount, finishing with 2,493 votes to Medeiros' 2,479.

Pacheco, a Dartmouth resident who works as a bartender and transportation manager for a nonprofit in Fall River, is headed for the November general election against Republican Chester Tam for the seat Rep. Christopher Markey is vacating. It is the only legislative district out of 200 where voters in both parties had a true choice of their nominees for the general election.

Pacheco has emphasized housing, public safety and local aid, as well as wastewater capacity, utility costs and opposition to large-scale data centers.

With the recounts over, the political calendar now turns toward the general election.

Republican gubernatorial nominee Mike Minogue used the week to put more detail behind his campaign's central themes, releasing a "Blueprint for a Better Future" organized around accountability, affordability, opportunity and public safety.

His proposals include tax cuts, reductions in energy-related fees, a gas tax holiday when gasoline exceeds $4 per gallon, increased local tax retention, faster housing permitting, expanded use of artificial intelligence to address traffic and a repeal of the state's net-zero mandate.

The blueprint also promises an outside audit of the Legislature and the entire state budget.

That is one of Minogue's recurring campaign promises, though a basic question remains unresolved: exactly how a governor would "audit the Legislature" is unclear, because the governor does not control the Legislature or the independent state auditor.

Answering that question in an interview with the News Service, Minogue has said he would support Auditor Diana DiZoglio's effort to conduct a legislative audit, including by providing legal and financial support and pushing for the issue to be resolved by the Supreme Judicial Court if necessary.

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Minogue's rollout comes as voters begin receiving the state's 88-page information guide on nine ballot questions. Secretary of State William Galvin said the questions could be a major reason people vote in November, but warned that the breadth and complexity of the measures will require voters to do some homework.

The nine questions tie the state record for the most on a Massachusetts ballot.

Galvin is also defending the ballot initiative process itself as lawmakers consider changing it.

House and Senate negotiators are working on legislation that would increase disclosure requirements for ballot-question campaigns and impose new rules around paid signature gathering. The House version also calls for a commission to examine the broader initiative petition process and recommend statutory and constitutional changes.

Galvin said the initiative process serves as a "safety valve for democracy," particularly when lawmakers fail to act or when the public disagrees with legislative decisions.

That debate is one of several reminders that, despite the end of formal sessions, Beacon Hill's work is not finished.

The Healey administration is already looking toward the fiscal 2026 closeout budget as another vehicle for priorities that stalled during the session.

Administration and Finance Secretary Matthew Gorzkowicz said the governor plans to again push for $100 million in surtax revenue to help schools cover rising costs such as health insurance, equipment and supplies.

The administration also sees the closeout budget as a possible vehicle for lawmakers to consider portions of the Municipal Empowerment Act, which has gotten a cool reception in the Legislature. The bill would give municipalities additional authority over taxes and other local matters, but its tax provisions have faced resistance.

The Legislature's work on data policy is also continuing.

Lawmakers are negotiating a data privacy bill, as questions about the influence of the technology industry surfaced after House Speaker Ron Mariano and House Ways and Means Chair Aaron Michlewitz received thousands of dollars in August donations from employees and affiliates of artificial intelligence company Anthropic. Mariano's office did not answer questions about the donations.

The company has supported strict AI regulations included in the Senate's economic development proposal, while the House version contains hundreds of millions of dollars in capital spending in areas including applied artificial intelligence and quantum computing.

Data centers provided another major technology-policy flashpoint this week.

Healey signed an executive order requiring large proposed data centers to obtain local approval and community benefits agreements before moving through state permitting. Projects with peak electricity demand above 25 megawatts must demonstrate compliance with the administration's data center framework, and the order calls for facilities to provide their own clean energy or make payments into a Ratepayer Protection Fund.

The order builds on Healey's June decision to pause applications for data center sales and use tax exemptions while the administration developed additional guardrails.

Minogue responded on X by accusing Healey of having "rolled out the red carpet for data centers" when she signed a tax credit for data center development in 2024, and saying she was trying to "re-write history because she's up for re-election." He said voters should remember that Healey "stood up for Big Data, not Bay Staters."

The debate over technology and privacy is also extending to law enforcement.

As municipalities around Massachusetts cancel or end pilot programs involving Flock Safety automated license plate readers, lawmakers are beginning to consider what statewide rules might be appropriate. Twenty-five communities have canceled Flock contracts or discontinued pilot programs over the past 18 months, according to the ACLU of Massachusetts.

Rep. Steve Owens of Watertown has legislation pending that would restrict how law enforcement agencies use automated license plate reader data, including limits on data retention and access without a warrant. The Transportation Committee endorsed the bill 11-0, but it remains before Ways and Means.

With formal sessions over, Owens said he did not expect the current bill to move before the end of the term. A conference committee working on the broader data privacy bill could address some of the same concerns, he said.

But whatever happens with that legislation, Owens plans to return to the issue. He said he intends to file another version next session that reflects the ongoing debate over the technology.

That leaves a familiar Beacon Hill question heading into the fall: Which issues that have been debated, delayed or left unfinished will actually make it across the finish line?

Officials also spent the week addressing legislation that did get through during the end-of-session rush.

Healey remained noncommittal about whether she would seek additional protections for a new law concerning abortions later in pregnancy, while a ban on kratom moved into a quieter phase as retailers began clearing the product from shelves.

For all the attention on recounts and November's campaigns, the Legislature therefore still has a substantial list of policy questions hanging over it.

The primary results may have settled some questions of who likely gets to sit in the State House next year. They did not settle what the State House will do before then.

25TH ANNIVERSARY OF 9/11: Friday marked the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, a significant anniversary in Massachusetts, where American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175 both departed Boston Logan International Airport for Los Angeles before being hijacked. At the State House, Gov. Maura Healey and First Lady Joanna Lydgate led the annual commemoration, including a moment of silence at 8:46 a.m. and the reading of more than 215 names of people with Massachusetts ties who were killed; retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Jonathan Treacy, who commanded the Otis Air National Guard unit that scrambled fighter jets in response to the attacks, delivered the keynote.

KELLER AT LARGE: 8:30 a.m., WBZ-TV. Political analyst Jon Keller hosts a mini-debate on Question 9, the proposed repeal of the state's 2024 gun control law. Toby Leary of the No on Question 9 Campaign and Ruth Zakarin of the Yes on Nine for a Safe Massachusetts Campaign discuss the various elements of the new law and their impact on gun violence and gun owners' rights. An expanded version is available online at cbsboston.com.

@ ISSUE: 9:30 a.m., NBC 10. Reporter Matt Prichard’s guest is U.S. Senate candidate John Deaton, a Bolton Republican.

ON THE RECORD: 11 a.m., WCVB. NewsCenter 5’s Sharman Sacchetti and Erika Tarantal sit down with Republican candidate for state treasurer Elizabeth Dionne. Democratic political analyst Mary Anne Marsh and Republican political analyst Lizzy Guyton join for a roundtable discussion.

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