Biden Congratulates Boston Mayor-Elect, But Calls Wrong Person
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SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images(BOSTON) — Marty Walsh was sitting at home Tuesday night watching election returns when his phone rang.
“You son of a gun, Marty! You did it! Congratulations,” Vice President Joe Biden said.
Biden was calling to congratulate the new mayor-elect of Boston, Marty Walsh, but it turns out he called the wrong Marty Walsh.
The Marty Walsh Biden phoned is president of Gateway Public Solutions in Boston and a former aide to Sen. Ted Kennedy. He often gets mixed up for the soon-to-be mayor.
“I said to my wife, ‘Wouldn’t it be funny if I started getting a couple of calls from people mixing myself up with Mayor-Elect Marty Walsh?’” Walsh told ABC News.
Soon after, he received a call from a number with a blocked ID that ended up being an operator from the White House.
“This is the wrong Marty Walsh,” Walsh says he told the operator who likely would have connected him to President Obama. “I’m happy to get you the right number.”
Ten minutes later, Biden called from Washington, D.C.’s 202 area code. “Thank you, but this is the wrong Marty Walsh,” Walsh told him before giving the vice president the correct number for the mayor-elect.
Walsh later got phone calls from the mayor of Minneapolis and DNC Chairwoman Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
Walsh said the mix-up happens all the time since he works in politics and the mayor-elect used to be a state representative. And there are even more Marty Walshes in Boston who could be facing similar problems.
“I should probably try to figure that out. My father is Marty Walsh, the mayor-elect’s uncle is Marty Walsh. Needless to say there are a lot of Marty Walshes in Boston,” he said.
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