If it’s possible for a 31-point victory to be a weak showing, that’s what Marty Walsh’s re-election was. 

In a booming economy, against a weak and virtually unfunded opponent, with the backing of virtually every political figure in the city, Walsh garnered 65% of the vote. That’s not even equal to Menino’s 68% against Maura Hennigan in 2005 — the figure members of his own team set their sights on — let alone Menino’s 76% against Peggy Davis-Mullen in 2001.  

Meanwhile, voters rejected the city council candidate Walsh explicitly backed, Steven Passacantilli, in favor of Lydia Edwards in the district covering East Boston, Charlestown, and the North End. Walsh also backed Ed Flynn in the South Boston/South End district, whose 24-point preliminary margin of victory over Mike Kelley narrowed to less than 4, in a nail-biter that hadn’t been officially called late into Tuesday night. 

Indeed, Walsh looks dangerously like the Tom Menino of later years, letting loyalty guide him in a different direction from his forward-marching city. Menino backed Tom Riley over Deval Patrick, Hillary Clinton over Barack Obama, and an East Boston casino rejected by that neighborhood’s voters. Walsh, after notably backing Warren Tolman against Maura Healey for attorney general, this year chose to back in City Council elections two white, male scions of powerful political families, in a year that saw voters clamoring for new Boston women and minorities. 

It would be difficult to overstate that clamor. Just four years ago, Ayanna Pressley was the only woman on the City Council. Two months from today, there will be six: four black, one Asian-American, and one Arab-American. 

That energy extends beyond Boston’s borders. Framingham, Newton, and Easthampton elected new women mayors Tuesday. Conservative Manchester, New Hampshire, elected a Democratic female mayor.  

Sensitive to the racial dynamics, Walsh’s campaign emphasized Tuesday night his success city-wide, particularly in heavily minority precincts — and he should take pride in that crossover appeal. But it came in part because Tito Jackson wasn’t a candidate that other minority leaders were willing to side with in criticizing the mayor. Meanwhile, Walsh ran up his margin of victory in South Boston and Charlestown, where white Flynn and Passacantilli voters came out in large numbers for those candidates. (One politico speculated to me that Walsh’s last-minute endorsement robocall for Passacantilli was more about getting Passacantilli voters to also vote for Walsh, rather than vice-versa.)  

Walsh’s margin of victory, and the success of candidates he supports, doesn’t ultimately matter that much — although he seems to have unnecessarily annoyed councilor-elect Edwards with his support for Passacantilli. He is the all-powerful mayor in the strong-mayor capital of the Commonwealth; that’s a good hand to hold no matter how you get it. 

But it does suggest that Walsh’s strength is limited — more limited, at the moment, than his ambitions.