Dowd, Dermody Elected to Select Board

April 14, 2026
• The first-term board member and newcomer won the two open seats. School Committee incumbents Michael Greis and Matt Spengler retained their seats.

Select Board Vice Chair Cathy Dowd will serve a second term on the board after Tuesday’s election. She will be joined by challenger Bill Dermody, who won the second available seat.

Dermody, a Realtor, earned the most votes with 4,328, according to unofficial results. Dowd, a former Needham High School civics and government teacher, earned 4,131 votes, and business owner Rich Adduci earned 1,948 votes.

Dowd and Dermody will serve a three-year term on the five-person board. Dermody replaces Marianne Cooley, a longtime board member who opted not to run for reelection.

Early Tuesday morning, Dowd voted at the Rosemary Recreation Complex before visiting other polling locations. At the Needham Golf Club later in the day, Dowd said her main message to voters was to share her accomplishments on the board and her excitement for the future.

The Pollard Middle School rebuild, MBTA Quiet Zone, diversified housing stock and recreational opportunities list among Dowd’s main goals.

After the results came in, Dowd said she feels honored and grateful to serve another term.

“Needham is a very tight-knit community where people really care about each other,” Dowd said, “and I think that came through in the results of the campaign.”

Dermody stood outside Newman Elementary School in the early afternoon, waving with his campaign signs and talking with supporters. He reminisced about past election cycles, where he’s met new people and spent time with old friends.

Election Day, for Dermody, was all about community. On the board, he said he hopes to be a consensus-builder, including on projects like Envision Needham Center, where he and his competitors seemed to coalesce around the four-lane plan. Dermody mentioned the Pollard project, as well as the large house issue, as other “hot topics” he’s spoken to voters about.

After clinching a seat, Dermody said he’s excited to get started.

“I’m grateful to the town. I look forward to getting to work tomorrow night,” Dermody said. “I think it’s a 468-page agenda or something. I’m going to be busy the first night.”

Adduci voted early at Town Hall, later holding signs there around noon. A self-described change candidate, Adduci said voters told him they were interested in new voices.

Before the results came in, Adduci said he aimed to “break the status quo” and “clean up the mess.”

“People see that things at Select Board are not as they wish, and Select Board is not well-aligned to what our citizens want,” Adduci said. “And so people are genuinely fed up with that and with the high taxes. They want change. That’s my brand.”

School Committee incumbents Matt Spengler and Michael Greis secured reelection after facing a challenge from Lauren Soper. Greis, who has served since 2005, earned 3,841 votes, while Spengler won a fourth term with 3,549 votes, according to unofficial results. Soper received 2,670 votes.

Outside of Town Hall, Spengler expressed gratitude for serving for the past nine years. With a background in education — he’s currently a superintendent — he said his work on the committee is “probably the best way I could give back to the town.”

Needham schools are “at this inflection point” with updating facilities, maintaining strong academic growth, addressing rising costs and balancing those priorities while focusing on “what’s best for students,” Spengler said.

“We’ve been fortunate to be in a town that values education and schools, and we’ve really benefited from our residents and their strong support ever since I’ve been in town,” Spengler said. “That hasn’t wavered in the last 20 years.”

Running for election is what local politics is all about for Greis. “It’s the visibility,” he said, “so people see that you’re out there and you care.”

At Rosemary, toward the end of the day, Greis joined a large cohort of sign-holders to welcome post-work voters to the polls. As did Spengler, Greis thanked voters and residents who helped him campaign.

“I thank everybody who’s been so supportive. I certainly hope to be reelected, to come back and continue the work I’ve been doing,” Greis said. “We have a lot of great opportunities ahead of us, and I very much want to be part of this. I love serving this town. It is a labor of love, so to speak.”

Soper was joined by two of her five children at Rosemary earlier in the afternoon. Her kids made makeshift voting signs they planted across town in the early morning as part of an effort to encourage voter turnout.

In speaking with voters, Soper often heard the desire for “fresh blood.” Waves and car honks throughout the day kept her energized and inspired in her own message, she said.

Through her campaign, she said she aimed to encourage civic action and act as a representative and conduit for the community’s interests.

“I believe a vote for me is a vote for wanting to do more and wanting to get engaged and believing that, believing that there is more to do,” Soper said prior to the polls closing.

In the Planning Board race — the only other contested election this cycle — architect Oscar Mertz won over builder and planner Gary Lesanto. Mertz got 3,314 votes to Lesanto’s 2,143, according to unofficial results.

Bill Dermody is vice chair of the Needham Community Television Development Corporation, which oversees Needham Local and The Needham Channel. He was not involved in the writing or editing of this story.

Michael Greis is chair of the Needham Community Television Development Corporation. He also was not involved in the writing or editing of this story.