Boston Mayor Martin Walsh won the mayoral campaign on the strength of his personal story and his 16-year history as a state lawmaker, getting down into the gritty issues when times were tough. The two elements complemented each other. His personal story contains more than one element that would have easily sidelined candidates in earlier times.

In late 2009, we interviewed then-state Rep. Marty Walsh at his State House office for a custom publication published by The Warren Group, publisher of Banker & Tradesman. Looking back at that interview, we remember a self-effacing but very present individual who tenaciously fought his battles, prevailing in small increments until the job was done.

Back then, there weren’t a lot of cranes on the Boston skyline. One of the industries worst hit  by the recession was construction. When work could be found, contractors didn’t always get paid, even after they’d done the job. Walsh noted that slow payments could make or break a company, and subcontractors were among the most vulnerable. Walsh advocated for a law that would insure payment protection even if an owner doesn’t pay. The bill later passed.

He also co-chaired the 2004 Special Commission on Public Construction Reform, which addressed delays, overruns and other problems on municipal construction projects. The effort resulted in Chapter 193 of the Acts of 2004, a reform of the public construction laws, the most comprehensive in more than 25 years.

Getting these things accomplished before building in Boston took off, before development became glamorous again, was the kind of thing Marty Walsh has historically been good at. A working knowledge of the crevasses that small business can fall into if a payment takes more than 120 days to come through is an example.  

Now that the cranes have returned to Boston and declared it a nesting ground – at least at this point in the cycle – the common perception is that the rising tide will lift all boats. But watch out. In times of economic recovery, it’s easier to overlook structural economic dissonances because there’s supposed to be so much money sloshing around in the tidal pools. But it isn’t necessarily so.

Walsh now enters an arena in which loyalty can be interpreted as being beholden; in which decisions must be made on the spot, instead of through consensus (as he told The Boston Globe last week). And in an economic culture that is increasingly acrimonious toward those who don’t have a leg up, his community activism on the part of the disenfranchised is bound to come up for genteel obloquy on the part of those who are fortunate enough to have never been disenfranchised.

Marty Walsh ran a campaign based on adversity experience and tenacity. Now, he’ll have to get used to the imputed authority thrust upon him as a power broker. This will be a challenge for the guy who comes into office at a time when rising tide seems to be lifting all boats, but a tide which isn’t so good for the boatless people chained to the pier.