Just minutes after the election returns arrived in Boston Tuesday night,
Martin Walsh’s cellphone rang. It was the vice president of the United
States, Joseph R. Biden, offering his congratulations.
“You son of a gun, Marty!” he thundered. “You did it!”
The only problem was, it was the wrong Marty Walsh.
Biden had called the cellphone of Marty Walsh, a former aide to US Senator
Edward M. Kennedy who is now the president of Gateway Public Solutions, a
government relations firm in Boston.
At the time, this Marty Walsh said, he was sitting on the couch with his
wife at their home in Natick, watching the election results on television.
Meanwhile, the other Marty Walsh, the one who had just been elected mayor of
Boston, was at the Park Plaza Hotel, celebrating his victory.
The less-famous Marty Walsh said he thanked Biden for his kind words, but
told him that he reached the wrong Marty. He offered to help the vice
president track down the right one, the one who had just been elected mayor.
Marty Walsh said he also got jubilant voicemail messages from R.T. Rybak,
the mayor of Minneapolis and vice chairman of the Democratic National
Committee, and from US Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida,
the chairwoman of the committee.
Walsh said his wife was amused to see national power players showering her
husband with praise. “She was laughing,” he said.
Still, Walsh said he expects that in the weeks and even years ahead, he may
field more calls from mixed-up officials who track down the number for the
wrong Marty Walsh.
“We’re a dime a dozen in Boston,” he said. “I probably know eight Marty
Walshes.”
