It's Good to Live in a Two-Daily Town

Now that Marty Walsh is mayor-elect of Boston, what does that make his longtime girlfriend Lorrie Higgins?

Galpal-in-waiting?

Whatever the label, both local dailies popped the question today: Is there a Boston City Hall wedding in our future?

First, Stephanie Ebbert’s Page One Boston Globe piece.

Eyes turn anew to woman who has long been at his side

The newly elected mayor of Boston had just shouted out his thanks, calling Lorrie Higgins “the love of my life and my best friend” in his victory speech.

She was right beside him onstage — as she has been for the past eight years, and is expected to be when he takes over City Hall.

“Eight years, she’s been at Thanksgiving, at Christmas,” said Martin J. Walsh’s first cousin, Joe O’Malley. “When [Marty’s father] passed away, she was the rock. She might as well be the next first lady.”

But will she be?

Ebbert got the brush-off when she tried to interview Higgins. “[A] campaign spokeswoman took offense at the Globe’s efforts to interview friends and coworkers for a profile about Higgins. ‘Stop harassing Lorrie,’ Kate Norton, spokeswoman for the campaign, demanded of the Globe. The request, she said, was coming directly from the mayor-elect. ‘His family is off limits,’ she said.”

Uh-huh. Until it’s not.

Margery Eagan had a slightly different take in her Boston Herald column.

Marty Walsh can get to ‘yes,’ but what about ‘I do’?

We heard Marty Walsh say it over and over. When it comes to tough union negotiations, “I know how to get to yes.”

My question: When is the man who gets everyone else to “yes” going to get his longtime girlfriend there?

Can he really “get to yes” with cops and firefighters when he can’t “get to yes” with the lovely Lorrie Higgins? I hear he’s asked her to marry him maybe a half-dozen times. She’s still not at the bargaining table.

She remains: Ms. Not Just Yet.

Should city taxpayers be concerned?

Not surprisingly, the Herald commentariat had a few questions of its own.

margie the “progressive” that wants lesbian priests and dogs marrying cats is hung up on a heterosexual monogamous relationship without marraige. Now that’s wierd! When did margie turn into an ultra-social-conservative?

Marge, “What difference does it make now?”

Is this the inside Track?

Comments in the Boston Globe were, for the most part, slightly more measured.

Note to Ms. Ebbert:  Next time your editor assigns you to write a story like this (I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt and assuming you were told to write it) either: a) refuse; b) find a less demeaning angle (demeaning to you I mean).  Two 40 something adults are entitled to their private lives, and I, for one, admire their desire to keep theirs private.  I suggest the press respect their wishes.

It’s hardly unusual for a newspaper to profile the spouse/partner of a politician newly elected to a major position.  The people want to know — so, who’s that lady?  I would hardly call it “harrassment”; I mean, this is just a background profile.  Wait’ll the spotlight gets really, really intense.  These Mahty folks are awfully touchy.

Let the wild rumpus begin.