As someone who struggled with alcoholism and other youthful indiscretions in my teens and early 20s, I was initially very interested in a candidate who had faced some of the same issues. I read with great interest about Marty Keogh’s efforts to turn around his life after being arrested several times as a young man. I gave serious though to giving him one of my four votes for Boston City Council At Large.
As he says on his website, Marty “turned things around. He went back and got his GED, attended Boston College at night and then graduated from the Massachusetts School of Law. He was sworn into the bar in 1999.”
So why, as someone who had already gone to law school and was serving as chief of staff to a city councillor, did he attack an old man? In 1997, according to the Globe’s archives, after a verbal dispute, Keogh, then 31, tried to slam a door on the arm of Steve Murphy chief of staff Sam Conti, then 64. Why? An argument over a parking space. One witness described the fight as “like a barroom brawl”. During the argument, Keogh also used an ethnic slur against Conti, asking him “What, are you going to get your Mafia friends after me?”
If Marty Keogh really has cleaned up his life, he can prove it by coming clean to the voters. What else should we know that might cast doubt on the idea that he had gotten his life together by his 30s?
I figured I should point out the fact that there’s a few Marties running around. It may be a good idea to include this Marty’s last name or initial in the title.
but less alliterative.