For the first time since 2011, William Brownsberger is being challenged for his seat in the state Senate.
The election, which includes a Democratic primary on Sept. 1, will be his first contested election since the redistricting in 2020. That year, the new district lost Back Bay in Boston, but gained west Cambridge and the parts of Allston it didn’t already have, as well as Brighton. Brownsberger also represents Watertown and Belmont.
A longtime Belmont resident, Brownsberger has served as state senator of the Suffolk and Middlesex district since January 2012, taking over for former Sen. Steven Tolman, D-Brighton. Before that, Brownsberger was elected to the House of Representatives, where he served from 2007 to 2012. From 1998 to 2007, he served on the Belmont Select Board.
Democrat Daniel Lander of Boston is challenging Brownsberger in the Democratic primary for the state senate.
“I love the work. I’m a public servant,” Brownsberger said. “I have always enjoyed public service; it means a lot to me. I’ve got a lot of work to do.”
In an interview with The Voice, Brownsberger said an important issue facing Massachusetts right now is protecting residents from the overreach of federal agencies, such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
“I’m pleased with the bill [the PROTECT Act] the Senate has passed, which included an important provision I authored related to civil rights, particularly with the ability to recover … in the case of civil rights violations,” he said.
Other major accomplishments, he said, was the Housing Production Bill, and prior to that, the redistricting work he did to “lawfully create two important new Senate districts.” Those efforts led to the election of a Black senator in Boston, and another resulted in the election of an Hispanic senator from Lawrence.
Brownsberger also highlighted the criminal justice reforms of 2018 and police reforms of 2020 as among the successes of his recent terms.
“We’ve cut our prison population by half,” Brownsberger said. “It’s a very significant shift from locking people up toward lifting people up.”
Weighing the current and expected future budget deficits for municipalities, Brownsberger touted his experience getting more state aid to his district. Running for state representative in 2006, his central concern was how to bring more state aid to municipalities.
“Every year in the negotiation [of how the budget will be allocated], we’re able to protect the schools better. I also stood behind six ballot questions raising taxes during my tenure as selectman that were successful, a couple more that weren’t,” he said.
On the subject of transparency—and specifically the question of the legislative audit—Brownsberger said he has long advocated for legislative transparency.
“Every ballot question needs work,” he said. “When you have a group, or a person, put something on a ballot, it hasn’t gone through the kind of vetting and negotiation and value engineering … So I think the public records ballot question is something I hope we will create, and I do believe we will create … and that’s a good thing.”
In his bid for the seat, Brownsberger emphasized his record as a public servant.
“I love doing the work of serving my constituents … I’ve taken on the biggest issues each year of our time,” he said. “The actual results I’ve delivered year after year reflect the passion and the effectiveness of my approach.”
