Walsh Looking Ahead Despite Loss to Rush

Despite an optimistic attitude going into Tuesday's state primary election, state Senate candidate and Westwood resident Michael Walsh ultimately fell to opponent Mike Rush.

"I'm a little disappointed," Walsh said Tuesday night. "I felt that maybe my hard work would pay off and that it wouldn't just be more of the same. But, you know, I guess part of the system is that incumbents back incumbents."

Walsh was disappointed in the voter turnout in the suburban areas. Turnout. In Dedham, voter turnout Tuesday was on the low side, as only about 25 percent of the town's registered voters made an effort to get to the polls.

What's more, Walsh said he felt as though many voters weren't paying as much attention to the primary, but rather most have their sights set on the November election.

"Most people are looking at November, and unfortunately I'm not sure that this Senate seat has shown any signs of bipartisan politics," Walsh said.

Still, in Dedham, Walsh earned nearly 150 more votes than Rush - about five percent of the vote. In Westwood, Walsh beat Rush by more than 500 votes.

In the end, though, it wasn't enough to save Walsh's campaign.

"We won the suburbs, but got beat too much in the city," he said.

But while he may be defeated, Walsh is looking ahead, and says it might not be long before takes a look at running for political office again.

"I won't rule that out," he said. "I even told people tonight, when I conceded, that there's two more years. We'll be back again in two more years."

In terms of how things were wrapped up Tuesday night, Walsh said:

"I always think at the end of the day, if you're not victorious, I think the fatigue of working so hard up to that point sets in," he said. "I try to keep [the staff] up beat, but the reality is, when you're not victorious, defeat is defeat."