Picture this, if you can stomach it: Mayor Marty Walsh chomping on a corn dog.
It could happen.
Walsh is on yet another out-of-state trip this week, this one to the presidential stomping grounds of Iowa, where wannabe White House contenders go to be born and die.
Could Walsh be the latest Massachusetts Democrat to contract a case of Potomac fever?
You never know. Former Boston Mayor Raymond L. Flynn had national ambitions, which got him a nice gig at the Vatican. Former Gov. Michael Dukakis, during his 1988 presidential run, suggested Iowa farmers grow Belgian endive, which was promptly mocked, but he still managed a third place in the Iowa caucus.
Walsh just started his second term but is already acting like he’s growing tired of ground-breakings in Mattapan and Dorchester.
Last month, Walsh traveled to another presidential proving ground — Ohio — where he was greeted like, well, let’s let Carl Neutzling of IBEW Local 688 in central Ohio tell it.
“I know he’s the governor of Massachusetts,” Neutzling told the Herald’s Hillary Chabot.
Oh, well, that apparently didn’t discourage Marty from venturing out again, this time to the cornfields of Iowa. Let’s hope he doesn’t get lost in a maze.
Walsh, with his thick Boston accent, will never be mistaken for a pig farmer. But he’s hoping to rally union workers in a state that voted for Donald Trump to vote Democratic this fall.
The Boston Democrat was in Des Moines yesterday, getting a tour of a new IBEW training facility, and also was scheduled to hold a rally for Iowa Secretary of State nominee Deidre DeJear.
Today Walsh is slated to have breakfast with Des Moines firefighters, according to Walsh’s campaign. Then a stop at the Iowa State Fair, a familiar stop for White House contenders.
Walsh is the second Massachusetts Democrat to travel to Iowa recently. Last year it was U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton who stopped in the Hawkeye State, stirring presidential speculation there.
So far no Iowa trips for former Gov. Deval Patrick, but that’s bound to happen, sooner than later. And of course expect Sen. Elizabeth Warren to set up camp there, and who knows, maybe former Secretary of State John Kerry will join her.
Counting Walsh, that makes five Massachusetts Dems on the growing group of 2020 contenders. That’s a lot even for the Bay State.
More likely, the Boston mayor is building up his national profile, hoping it will make him vice presidential material. Or land him a Cabinet post in the next Democratic White House.