Man behind the win

John E. Walsh, a veteran Democratic activist and former Abington selectman, had heard of someone named Deval L. Patrick who was thinking of running for governor, so he invited him to the Plymouth County Democrats' St. Patrick's Day dinner in 2005.

Walsh's initial impression was not entirely favorable. "He told a joke that was the worst I ever heard," recalled Walsh one day last week. "I just said to myself, 'This guy needs help.' "

Help indeed is what Walsh provided to the former federal prosecutor making his first bid for elective office. A few days after the dinner, Walsh and Patrick had coffee and hit it off. The following week, Walsh signed on as Patrick's campaign manager.

The genial, heavyset Abington native, who owns a small local insurance agency, masterminded Patrick's improbable journey from political unknown to governor-elect. Walsh was the architect of Patrick's signature grass-roots movement, a network of committed supporters in every town, ward, and precinct from the Berkshires to Boston.

"A grass-roots campaign is going to where people are and talking to them about the things they care about," said Walsh, 48, in an interview at Patrick's still bustling campaign headquarters in Charlestown. "It's embarrassingly simple. The real challenge is to stick with it."

In his election night victory speech, Patrick called Walsh "the best campaign manager... on the planet" and described the campaign as "the broadest and best grass-roots organization this Commonwealth has ever seen."

Now, Walsh is pondering whether to leave behind his uncomplicated life as an Abington insurance man whose office is around the corner from his home and move more permanently into the world of politics. He indicated he has been offered a position in the new administration.

"I'm a blessed person, in that I have a job now; I have a three-minute commute," said Walsh. He and his wife, Donna, who works at the state Lottery Commission, have a 12-year-old son, Coleman. "Now, I get to go to Coleman's basketball practices and games, and I've missed a few of them lately," he said.

But the lure of the State House is strong, he acknowledged. "There are opportunities. I'm very conscious of that." He said he does not plan to make a quick decision. "I really don't know what will happen," he said.

Timothy White of Hingham, a Democratic activist who succeeded Walsh as chairman of the Plymouth County Democratic League several years ago, said that regardless of Walsh's success on the statewide stage, he remains grounded in his hometown.

"John Walsh will always be John Walsh," said White. "He's an Abington kid and will always be one."

If he decides to forgo government service for now, a host of other political opportunities may await Walsh down the road. When the next election approaches, he can expect many suitors.

"John Walsh would be a tremendous person for anyone wanting to run for anything in Massachusetts," said James M. Cantwell of Marshfield, chairman of the South Shore Coalition, an alliance of area Democratic town committees.

People who know him well say Walsh's calm and respectful manner and his soothing baritone voice have, along with his political savvy, been keys to his success in politics.

"I've never heard him get mad," said state Senator Michael W. Morrissey, a Quincy Democrat whose district includes Abington. "He has an easy manner and a willingness to listen to people. He is sincere."

Walsh is the son of Irish immigrants, both deceased. His mother was a nurse's aide, and his father, a laborer and later a janitor.

Walsh excelled at Cardinal Spellman High School in Brockton, then went to Princeton University, where he played football.

After college graduation, he returned to Abington and got a job in insurance sales for John Hancock. Later, he started his own agency, Independence Insurance.

He also began to dabble in politics. In 1982, he helped run the unsuccessful state representative campaign of his friend John R. Buckley Jr., now Plymouth County register of deeds. Walsh himself won a seat on the Abington Board of Selectman, which he held for a decade.

It was his service as chairman of the Plymouth County Democratic League that drew the attention of state political operatives. The organization was largely moribund when Walsh took it over in the mid-1990s.

"John resurrected the league from a less active stage and made it a significant player in South Shore politics," White said.

He applied his theory of the power of grass-roots organizing in Plymouth County's 26 towns plus the city of Brockton, putting together a network of coordinators and precinct captains. It paid off in a big way in 2000, when the Democrats almost swept what had been a Republican stronghold.

Democrats ousted the sitting Republican sheriff and register of probate, captured two other open county posts and an open legislative seat, while holding all of their own posts.

"Even before Deval Patrick talked about getting back the people who had opted out, John was doing it in Plymouth County," White said.

Walsh moved up to state politics in 2002, when state chairman Philip W. Johnston tapped him to coordinate the Democratic Party's statewide effort.

Democrats did well in legislative races that year, but failed to capture the governorship, which was won by Republican Mitt Romney.

Walsh describes his experience on Patrick's campaign as exhilarating and exhausting.

"It is long days; it's seven days a week," Walsh said. "There are the e-mails and text messages. It's also exciting. When you work for Deval Patrick, there is a constant sense of energy."

Walsh said that despite the strain of the campaign, his health has been good, other than a lingering sinus infection.

With the election over, Walsh is focused on closing down the campaign field offices and counseling key campaign workers as they consider job opportunities. Many of them will be in great demand by other campaigns, including some on the national stage, he said.

He is also sorting out his own future, while savoring the recent past.

"Where this all leads, I don't know," he said, "but it has been such a wonderful journey."