Sadly for the Guy Who Owns @MartyWalsh, Everyone Is Named Marty Walsh
For the guy who owns the Twitter feed @MartyWalsh, Tuesday wrapped up a long few months of redirecting Boston Twitter users to @Marty_Walsh, the correct username for your new Mayor-elect, as MassLive.com noticed Wednesday. Had John Connolly prevailed in the race, that likely would have brought some peace to Illinois-based real estate agent, Marty Walsh. Instead, he’s now receiving Tweets intended not only for Mayor-Elect Marty Walsh but for another Massachusetts Marty Walsh, this one a former Ted Kennedy aide currently of note for getting a phone call from Vice President Joe Biden to congratulate him on his mayoral win.
Indeed, it’s tough to be named Marty Walsh when you’re not running for mayor. If you’re curious, the website Howmanyofme.com uses 2000 Census data to calculate that there are 132 Martin Walsh’s in America. That’s not an especially large amount. There are 45,829 John Smiths, for instance. But the problem is more acute locally. The White Pages lists 48 Martin Walsh’s in Massachusetts. Also of note: there’s a film editor by the name of Martin Walsh who won an Oscar in 2002 for Chicago. And of course, there is soon to be a mayor of a major U.S. city.
But Masslive.com’s Michelle Williams (no, not the actress) caught up with the owner of @MartyWalsh, who sounds at least sort of amused by all this. He’s got just 79 followers on Twitter and until the Boston election, probably didn’t have a lot of activity going on there. Now his feed is full of Tweets informing people they’ve got the wrong guy. He has a stock line he uses:
@LzOConnor thanks for your support but I’m not running for mayor. I’m way too good looking.
— Marty (@MartyWalsh) November 5, 2013
@MartinCallaghan @JoshuaDWeiss you mean @marty_walsh not me. I’m much better looking.
— Marty (@MartyWalsh) September 29, 2013
@WorkingAmerica c’mon it’s @marty_walsh not me. Getting sick of Beantown tweets. Plus, I’m way better looking and much smarter.
— Marty (@MartyWalsh) October 3, 2013
He occasionally showed signs of frustration:
@marty_walsh do you want my twitter handle? Either that or stop running for mayor.
— Marty (@MartyWalsh) October 3, 2013
@hperez7 Wrong Marty, I’m the good looking one!
— Marty (@MartyWalsh) October 22, 2013
Recognizing signs of defeat when he sees them, @MartyWalsh has offered several times over Twitter to sell @Marty_Walsh (the mayor-to-be) his Twitter handle. “I also own the domain name www.martinwalsh.com. I may do a ‘buy one get one free’ deal for him,” Walsh tells MassLive.com. Sometimes, its just not worth beating your fellow-namesakes to all the hot web properties.
