Daniel Lander conceded the razor thin Democratic state senate primary to incumbent Sen. William Brownsberger on Thursday afternoon, ending a closely watched race that came down to a districtwide hand recount. (Disclosure: Lander’s mother, Lori Lander, is on the Local News Fund Advisory Board at the Cambridge Community Foundation, which has given financial support to Cambridge Day.)
“I would like to congratulate my opponent, Senator Brownsberger, on his victory,” Lander said shortly after Cambridge election officials completed their recount. “I called him to concede, and I wish him the best because the people of the district are counting on him to fight for them.”
The concession came after roughly five hours of counting in Cambridge produced no change in the city’s results. Lander received 1,862 votes to Brownsberger’s 1,614 across the four Cambridge precincts in the Suffolk and Middlesex district, maintaining his 248-vote advantage in the city.
Brownsberger entered the recount with a 34-vote districtwide lead over Lander, 12,291 to 12,257, after vote totals repeatedly shifted in the days following the Sept. 1 primary. Boston completed its recount Wednesday without changing the margin between the candidates there.
The district includes Belmont, Watertown and portions of Cambridge and Boston. Lander carried Cambridge, Watertown and Boston in the initial results, while Brownsberger’s large margin in his hometown of Belmont was enough to overcome those losses and give the longtime incumbent the districtwide advantage.
Lander said that although the results fell short of what he had hoped for, the unexpectedly close challenge had sent a message to Beacon Hill.
“While this race did not end as I hoped, I’m deeply, deeply proud of the campaign we built,” Lander said. “I know we have woken up the state Senate and sent a message loud and clear that the days of delay and inaction have to end.”
When asked what comes next, Lander did not rule out another run for office, but when pressed on whether he might run again in two years or return to work for Wu, Lander declined to announce specific plans.
“I think it is clear that people in three of the four [municipalities] are already hungry for change. I think it’s important that they have an opportunity to continue to organize for that. I’m going to be alongside them,” said Lander. “I need some sleep, and then we’ll have more to share.”
The politics of this race
Lander, who attended the Cambridge recount, thanked the volunteers helping oversee the process and reiterated the argument at the center of his campaign.
“Three of the four communities in this district are ready for change,” Lander said. “They are hungry for leadership that won’t make excuses that everything’s too hard.”
The extraordinarily close contest drew attention well beyond the district as a test of Boston Mayor Michelle Wu’s political influence on Beacon Hill. Wu endorsed Lander, her former senior adviser, in his first run for office against Brownsberger, a longtime incumbent and the third-ranking Democrat in the state Senate.
Brownsberger has publicly clashed with Wu over her effort to temporarily shift more of Boston’s property tax burden onto commercial properties to cushion increases for homeowners as the city navigates the limits imposed by Proposition 2½. Lander, meanwhile, sought to capitalize on frustration with Beacon Hill, arguing throughout the campaign that the legislature’s secretive, top-down culture has kept lawmakers from responding quickly enough to the state’s affordability crisis and other pressing issues.
Seeing democracy in action
Inside Cambridge’s recount Thursday, election workers sorted ballots into blocks of 50 before sending them to four tables, where each ballot was counted by hand. Two paid election workers sat at each table, joined by observers from both campaigns.
Campaign representatives could challenge how individual ballots were counted. Attorneys for both candidates and the city would first review disputed ballots, with the Cambridge Election Commission making the final ruling if a challenge remained unresolved.
Two questions had been raised by midday over unusual ballot markings, including one involving a voter who checked a candidate’s name rather than filling in the oval, Election Commissioner Charles Marquardt said. Both were withdrawn after the campaigns agreed the voter’s intent was clear.
“It’s like you see democracy in action,” Marquardt said. “Everybody’s working together. Everybody’s talking. Everybody’s being polite.”
The recount also became an impromptu civics lesson for seventh and eighth graders from the nearby Fairweather Street School, where Humanities teacher Jennifer Kay-Goodman is beginning the school year teaching about elections.
“How often do we get a recount?” Kay-Goodman said. “How much more relevant does it get than seeing government in action?”
The race also had a personal connection to the classroom: Lander graduated from Fairweather Street School in 2005 and spent two years as one of Kay-Goodman’s students. She declined to say whom she supported, saying she wants her students to make their own decisions based on the issues.
“It makes it interesting for them to grow up and say, ‘Wow, one of us could be a politician,’” Kay-Goodman said.
A stronger
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