State Representative Steven Walsh’s decision to leave the House of Representatives to take a position as the Executive Director of the Massaachusetts Council of Community Hospitals leaves a void not only on the political scene, but also for the people of Lynn whom Walsh has served so well since first being elected to the House in 2002.
To be sure, Steve Walsh is a Lynn person through and through with deep roots in the community. His father, Coley, is the co-chair of the Lynn Democratic City Committee and his mother, Deborah Smith Walsh, is a former Lynn city councilor. But he also stepped out to become one of the most educated legislators serving in the Mass. House, having graduated from Wesleyan University before earning his law degree at the New England School of Law and his Master’s in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
His talents and dedication to his constituency soon became evident in the House where he was appointed Chairman of the House Committee on Health Care Financing and was named by the Boston Globe in 2012 as a Bostonian of the Year for his work on the drafting and passage of the Commonwealth’s healthcare payment reform legislation.
Steve Walsh’s shoes will be hard to fill; he was a man whom the Globe described as “the people’s legislator.” We know we join with Steve’s former constituents in wishing him well in his new endeavor, a sentiment echoed by House Speaker Bob DeLeo, who noted, “Chairman Walsh has been a tireless advocate for the people of the Eleventh Essex District, I appreciate the contributions he made to the House of Representatives, particularly as a national leader on the issue of health care cost containment. I wish him all the best in his new role at the Massachusetts Council of Community Hospitals.”