Outside the Beltway

Biden Congratulates The Wrong Martin Walsh

Doug Mataconis · Thursday, November 7, 2013 · 5 comments

After Martin Walsh  won the Boston Mayor’s race Tuesday night, Vice President Biden was among the many top Democrats who wanted to call to congratulate him. Unfortunately for the Vice-President, there’s more than one Democrat in Boston named Martin Walsh:

After Democrat Martin Walsh won Boston’s mayoral race on Tuesday, Vice President Joe Biden called to congratulate him. The problem? He called the wrong Martin Walsh.

“You son of a gun, Marty! You did it,” Biden told the not-mayor-elect Walsh, according to the Boston Globe.

But the vice president wasn’t the only one to make the mistake.

Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak all called political consultant Martin Walsh and not mayor-elect Walsh, according to reports.

A White House phone operator even rang asking him to hold for President Barack Obama before Walsh explained they had the wrong man, the State House News Service reports.

Walsh was sitting on his couch at home watching election results when the calls came in. He and his wife laughed off the confusion and offered to help Biden track down the number of the Martin Walsh he was looking for.

Well, at least he’ll always have a story to tell.

Note: Appropriately enough, the original title of this post misidentified the winner of the Boston Mayoral Race as Martin Wells. At least Vice-President Biden got the name right. The error has been corrected.