* Background is here. Monday press release from Illinois Sixth Congressional District Democrats…
On Saturday, Helene Walsh was appointed by Lake County Republican Chairman Mark Shaw to represent the 51st District in the Illinois House, despite her controversial views on guns, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, civil rights and more.
Today, Helene Walsh scrubbed her Facebook page of all radical views and photos.
“Helene Walsh should be straight with the voters of the 51st District. If, for instance, she believes that children should be separated from parents who are applying for legal asylum, she shouldn’t be afraid to say so,” said Nancy Shepherdson, Sixth District Democratic State Central Committeewoman and Co-Chair of the Illinois Sixth Congressional District Democrats. Walsh deleted a July 3, 2018 post that stated: “Don’t want to be separated from your kids…don’t break our laws.”
Patrick Watson Sixth District Democratic State Central Committeeman and Co-Chair of the Illinois Sixth Congressional District Democrats, noted that Walsh also deleted extreme racist, xenophobic and divisive comments posted this year. Watson noted: “If Helene Walsh wants to represent us, she should tell us that she believes without holding back or trying to hide behind platitudes.”
The Helene Walsh Facebook page was scrubbed after a statement was released by Adam Didech, county board candidate in the 20th District, condemning Walsh’s extremely candid and divisive comments.
The seat Helene Walsh has been appointed to was left open after State Representative Nick Sauer resigned two weeks ago when allegations of “catfishing for men” using an ex-girlfriend’s nude photos were made public. Helene Walsh is the wife of former Congressman and right-wing talk show host Joe Walsh.
The Illinois 51st District stretches from western Waukegan and western Mundelein in the north to Vernon Hills, Long Grove and Barrington in the south, with most of Libertyville in its center. Helene Walsh will run against Democrat Mary Edly-Allen, a bilingual teacher who is a champion for freedom and rights for all.
I’m guessing that some folks were able to save much of her online activity, however.
* From her Democratic opponent…
* From 10th Dems…
…Adding… Miller-Walsh has been a fan of conspiracy theories, and now she’s being hit by one. This thing has spread around Facebook and Twitter…
It’s just so ridiculous. Joe Walsh started breaking with Trump long before the Sauer thing became public. But nutballs are gonna nutball, I suppose.
- AnonNice - Tuesday, Aug 21, 18 @ 12:42 pm:
The nut doesn’t fall far from her spousal nut.
- wordslinger - Tuesday, Aug 21, 18 @ 12:42 pm:
Shouldn’t you scrub the nasty before the appointment, not after?
How is that not SOP these days? Not that anything every really goes away, once you put it out there. But you can make it more difficult to find.
- City Zen - Tuesday, Aug 21, 18 @ 12:46 pm:
“she posed at a GOP rifle raffle weeks after the Las Vegas mass shooting”
What’s the proper wait time for such a thing?
- Demoralized - Tuesday, Aug 21, 18 @ 12:48 pm:
==What’s the proper wait time for such a thing?==
There’s never a proper time for a rifle raffle these days.
- Precinct Captain - Tuesday, Aug 21, 18 @ 12:49 pm:
With the Raunerbucks, you’d think the HRO could afford a researchers firm to do vetting.
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Aug 21, 18 @ 12:50 pm:
===According to sources Joe Walsh’s recent transformation into being Anti-Trump was part of an agreement to have his wife Helene Walsh appointed to house district 51 in Illinois……developing===
Is this meta?
The tin foil hat has upon it… a tin foil hat?
That’s a lot of tin foil.
- Lake County Voter - Tuesday, Aug 21, 18 @ 12:54 pm:
Helene Walsh has been very quiet as all of this has started to come out. Where is she?
- Juice - Tuesday, Aug 21, 18 @ 12:56 pm:
Precinct Captain, not sure what good further vetting would do.
Last week, Shaw was appointed to the board of TRS. That is followed by Shaw appointing Walsh to the State Rep seat, whose husband has a pretty large following and the means (radio show and twitter) to get his message out and had at least previously been a vocal critic of the Governor. Combine that with his continued close relationship with Uihlein, and I don’t think vetting changes any of that calculus.
- City Zen - Tuesday, Aug 21, 18 @ 12:57 pm:
==There’s never a proper time for a rifle raffle these days.==
You could probably drop “these days” from that. I’m not sure why the “weeks after” qualifier was even needed.
- Northsider - Tuesday, Aug 21, 18 @ 12:58 pm:
Well, voters in the 51st … over to you.
- SWIL Voter - Tuesday, Aug 21, 18 @ 1:00 pm:
The Red ‘X’ in the twitter handle denotes the poster is a QAnon conspiracy person
- Jocko - Tuesday, Aug 21, 18 @ 1:06 pm:
==What’s the proper wait time for such a thing?==
With semi-automatic weapons, I’m always told it’s “too soon” to discuss legislative solutions. Which is it?
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, Aug 21, 18 @ 1:06 pm:
=== denotes the poster is a QAnon===
Nope. https://www.albawaba.com/loop/what-does-red-x-twitter-mean-and-why-are-conservatives-using-it-1167028
- Ducky LaMoore - Tuesday, Aug 21, 18 @ 1:09 pm:
Undoubtedly Chairman Shaw could have made a better choice for the people of the 51st district. Like, he could have opened the phone book and randomly pointed to a name. Almost guarantees a better result.
- A guy - Tuesday, Aug 21, 18 @ 1:10 pm:
IL 6th Dems: Pretty rich after Sean the Gallbladder Casten took down his whole Twitter account with months of stupid comments on it. Hmm
- GOPgal - Tuesday, Aug 21, 18 @ 1:13 pm:
I would really like to hear Mark Shaw (as Lake Co. GOP chair the choice was pretty much all up to him) explain why he picked someone who agrees with her husband that President Trump is a traitor. I mean what was Shaw thinking? Even a lot of sensible Democrats agree that “traitor” charge is beyond outrageous and reckless.
I’m assuming the paper trail on that is one of the things Ms. Walsh deleted, but I saw it myself after the Putin summit thing.
- Huh? - Tuesday, Aug 21, 18 @ 1:24 pm:
Scrubbing a facebook page ignores the reality that the internet is forever with archived pages just waiting for that google thing to occur.
- 47th Ward - Tuesday, Aug 21, 18 @ 1:35 pm:
===Shouldn’t you scrub the nasty before the appointment, not after?===
But doesn’t the “nasty” help her get the nod in the first place? I mean, didn’t she need to establish her bona fides with the Chairman?
This is pretty mainstream GOP nasty too. I’m kind of surprised she scrubbed it. That’s a sign of betrayal in certain circles, isn’t it?
- BlueDogDem - Tuesday, Aug 21, 18 @ 1:49 pm:
There’s never a proper time for a rifle raffle these days.
That comment says it all. About the real motives of most anti gun nuts.
- SWIL Voter - Tuesday, Aug 21, 18 @ 1:50 pm:
==Nope. ==
got my unfounded conspiracies mixed up. That Venn diagram is pretty much a circle tho
- AnonNice - Tuesday, Aug 21, 18 @ 2:00 pm:
@BlueDogDem Are you criticizing the tweet or the response or the raffle?
- Ducky LaMoore - Tuesday, Aug 21, 18 @ 2:04 pm:
===That comment says it all. About the real motives of most anti gun nuts.===
No. I own guns. I am not opposed to anyone else that is not a criminal owning a gun. But too many people don’t take the responsibility of gun ownership seriously. And to me, raffling off a gun is part of that problem. Guns are dangerous, and I have seen it first-hand. Smiling in pictures with assault rifles tells me these people have no idea how powerful a weapon it is and the destruction it can do in the wrong hands… and they don’t care.
- wordslinger - Tuesday, Aug 21, 18 @ 2:05 pm:
–“she posed at a GOP rifle raffle weeks after the Las Vegas mass shooting”
What’s the proper wait time for such a thing?–
Equal too or greater than the wait time before you can discuss gun safety measures without being “politicizing?”
Or, after the thoughts and prayers do the trick.
- VanillaMan - Tuesday, Aug 21, 18 @ 2:18 pm:
All criminals and Facebook users should avoid public service.
- VanillaMan - Tuesday, Aug 21, 18 @ 2:25 pm:
Facebook is the mask for every poster using it. It’s basically dishonest and is nothing more than a PR outlet for its users.
Everything is scrubbed and fake.
You don’t like someone’s post? That’s too bad because it fit the poster’s image when it went online. Taking something down isn’t “scrubbing” it. The postings were just updated and deleted based upon the newer fake image.
This argument about scrubbing one’s fake image is really sad.
- 17% Solution - Tuesday, Aug 21, 18 @ 3:02 pm:
“Casten took down his whole Twitter account with months of stupid comments on it.”
Are any of Casten’s stupid tweets Helene Miller Walsh level quality? Examples?
- A guy - Tuesday, Aug 21, 18 @ 3:35 pm:
==Are any of Casten’s stupid tweets Helene Miller Walsh level quality? Examples?==
sure are. He took it down. With any luck someone captured them. I suspect we’ll see those gems.
It wasn’t a surprise that he’d be on the ballot. Mrs. Walsh is a surprise to me. She’s changed roles. Let’s see what that effect has on her public posts.
- Frustrated in Lake County - Tuesday, Aug 21, 18 @ 4:00 pm:
For the “couldn’t Shaw have done better” comments, this decision should be viewed in light of all his other decisions since 2016 while leading the GOP in a swing, moderate county (platform whipping for anti-gay marriage language; “Beat Hillary at the Distillery” hurting Dold; Gun Raffle, etc) — he wants to lead the state party in a post-Rauner GOP. And winning races is a secondary consideration in today’s grassroots conservative politics.
- AnonNice - Tuesday, Aug 21, 18 @ 4:23 pm:
@Frustrated Shaw deserves blame, obviously, but it’s hard to blame him completely. It’s arguably where the party is now. Remember that Bennett won the IL-10 nomination.
- Ela Observer - Wednesday, Aug 22, 18 @ 2:32 am:
FYI, there is another Lake County Republican Gun Raffle on September 9.
- BlueDogDem - Wednesday, Aug 22, 18 @ 8:57 am:
Ela. How do I get tickets?
- wordslinger - Wednesday, Aug 22, 18 @ 9:23 am:
–Ela. How do I get tickets?–
You don’t have the mental capacity to figure out how to contact the Lake County GOP on your own but you need another gun? Give that a think.
- Lake County Voter - Wednesday, Aug 22, 18 @ 1:51 pm:
==FYI, there is another Lake County Republican Gun Raffle on September 9.==
I actually don’t see this online anywhere. Can you share more details?