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* As you most likely know by now, Congresswoman Melissa Bean has conceded to Republican Joe Walsh. Bean lost by just under 300 votes. She didn’t do nearly well enough when absentees and provisionals were counted yesterday…
In McHenry County, Walsh picked up 17 votes to Bean’s 12 votes Tuesday.
In Cook County, Walsh received 59 votes Tuesday to Bean’s 105 votes, Cook County Clerk spokeswoman Courtney Greve said.
As of 5:37 p.m., the Lake County Clerk’s website said Walsh had received 459 votes and Bean received 474.
With the counts from Tuesday added in, Walsh stood at 98,115 to Bean’s 97,825.
* Walsh won despite being massively outspent…
Over the course of the race, Bean out-fundraised Walsh $1.9 million to $465,000.
* A big reason for his lack of funding was that the state and national GOP refused to help Walsh…
“Everybody would admit that it was a race that wasn’t on anybody’s radar,” said Illinois Republican Party chairman Pat Brady. “We made a mistake.”
The other issues included a campaign manager who quit and then sued Walsh for $20,000 in nonpayment and two more staffers who quit and accused him of not properly disclosing a 2008 home foreclosure and traffic citations to the public.
Unlike other Republicans who won districts held by Democrats on Nov. 2, Walsh didn’t receive an invitation to the National Republican Congressional Committee’s “Young Gun” programs.
They didn’t think he could win because of his long history of personal problems. And those problems meant they didn’t really want to help him win.
* Illinois now has 11 Republican members of Congress out of 19 total. They haven’t had a majority since 2004, and I’m not sure when they’ve ever had this many members here.
posted by Rich Miller
Wednesday, Nov 17, 10 @ 10:34 am
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Kirk Dillard told her to wait until sundown tomorrow to finally concede …she just pulled the trigger too fast!
Comment by Oswego Willy Wednesday, Nov 17, 10 @ 10:46 am
I love stories like this. So sorry establishment!
Comment by So. ILL Wednesday, Nov 17, 10 @ 10:51 am
How many of them are actual Republicans, and how many are Tea Partiers? I think it’s going to make a difference.
Comment by Cheryl44 Wednesday, Nov 17, 10 @ 10:51 am
Wow! Doesn’t speak well for the Establishment Repubs. First- they can’t get their guy elected to the big house whom the RGA dumped a bunch of cash into.
Then- they discover conservatives that they forgot to support.
With Friends like that, who needs enemies?
Comment by Tony Orlando's Dawn Wednesday, Nov 17, 10 @ 10:57 am
“So I got me an office, gold records on the wall. Just leave a message, maybe I’ll call.”
Enjoy it while it lasts Mr. Walsh.
Comment by 47th Ward Wednesday, Nov 17, 10 @ 11:00 am
Cheryl44, the majority of Tea Partiers are real Republicans, although some Tea Partiers are conservative Democrats, and some Tea Partiers think that Republicans are too liberal.
Comment by Conservative Veteran Wednesday, Nov 17, 10 @ 11:04 am
Look, I am surprised that Bean didn’t pull it out. Even though I knew she was in deep trouble with many in her district, the 8th was the one suburban/collar congressional race I did not “call” correctly in Rich’s QOTD. Still, rather than mocking Walsh, or viewing this race as some sort of fluke or anomaly, I think it behooves both Dems and Repubs to dig deeper into the two campaigns and candidate personalities for valuable lessons.
Comment by Responsa Wednesday, Nov 17, 10 @ 11:17 am
Just doing a quick check, it seems like the last time Illinois had that many Republicans in the House was the 97th Congress (81-83) when they held 14 of the 24 seats, so it’s been thirty years.
Comment by DownstateGuy Wednesday, Nov 17, 10 @ 11:21 am
He should be gone in the 2012 elections. More people will be coming out during those elections and should wake up to some of the stuff he has done. She just ran a bad campaign.
Comment by Aaron Wednesday, Nov 17, 10 @ 11:22 am
Congressman Bean cannot refudiate that she misunderestimated Joe Walsh. Seriously I don’t think it was the campaign that sank her it was her votes. 98,000+ voters for Joe Walsh is not about how you communicated your message. It is your message is not liked by those voters.
Comment by Jeff Wednesday, Nov 17, 10 @ 11:30 am
In 1990, downstate democrats had 5 US Congressmen (Costello, Cox, Durbin, Evans, and Poshard. Now there is one—Costello. The loss of voter support, like most of the mid-western region, is the result of 20 years of Democrats over promising and under delvering on economic issues. One Wall Street party is more than enough.
Comment by Louis Howe Wednesday, Nov 17, 10 @ 11:37 am
Id Madigan does some unpacking they will all be done . The democrats have a stunning number of 90-10 distrcts throught Illinois and the nation. Besides Illinois the dems got an independant comission in Florida. FL has 5 dems seats of 25. I think Illinois and Florida could flip 10 seats
Comment by western illinois Wednesday, Nov 17, 10 @ 11:41 am
This election was marked by extreme polarization. Straight D voting in the city was matched by an almost equal fervor of straight R voting in the suburbs, the individual candidates be damned. I think Bean was the victim of the “R” becoming the protest/anti-status quo vote of choice in suburban Chicago.
Comment by Upsate Wednesday, Nov 17, 10 @ 11:42 am
@Jeff -
What sank her was more than 6000 people voting for the Green Party candidate.
I hope progressives in the 8th district are happy now.
Comment by Yellow Dog Democrat Wednesday, Nov 17, 10 @ 11:58 am
This man campaigned in the primary by repeatedly stating that he was a Tea Party Candidate first and a Republican second. He then outworked and out hustled his better financed opponents in the primary. The man is simply a ball of perpetual energy.
He then outworked and out hustled Bean, who didn’t do much in the way of campaigning in response and tried a Rose Garden strategy. Her TV ads towards the end of the campaign were more or less drowned out by everyone else’s. In the meantime, Walsh kept e-mailing everyone and their cousins demanding debates and making Bean look remote and detached from the district. It would not be unusual to get 3-4 emails from his campaign a day.
Should the Republican party have stepped up and supported someone who initially kept poking them in the eye and stating that he was a Tea Party candidate first? Would anyone?
Walsh to his credit toned down those comments during the general election and focused on Bean and other issues.
Give the man his due. He won it the hard way, by pressing the flesh, marshaling an army of volunteers to make phone calls and pound on doors, actually pretty much uniting the tea party groups in his district (which is pretty darn difficult as a rule to pull off), and hustling like crazy with no money and no TV ads.
Enjoy your victory Joe Walsh. You clearly earned it.
Comment by Louis G. Atsaves Wednesday, Nov 17, 10 @ 11:58 am
Such a narrow margin could result in the extreme remapping of the districts which border Wisconsin and abut Chicago. Don’t be surprised to see Madigan’s computer mapping guys drink enough Starbuck’s to get a map that makes no sense and further meshes semi-rural and suburban districts.
Comment by Team Sleep Wednesday, Nov 17, 10 @ 11:59 am
===What sank her was more than 6000 people voting for the Green Party candidate.===
It’s not like that candidate was invisible. She should’ve known it was a problem, if it was, and taken action.
Comment by Rich Miller Wednesday, Nov 17, 10 @ 12:03 pm
With so little money and advertising, it makes me wonder how many people who voted for him didn’t really know who he was, but were just really big Eagles fans
Comment by ANON Wednesday, Nov 17, 10 @ 12:04 pm
candidate a represents a district that has been democrat forever, went very very huge for obama, faced an unknown candidate and campaigned her tail off.
candidate b represents a district that has been gop forever, went small for obama, faced an unknown candidate and did nothing.
candidate a was jan schakowsky,
candidate b was melissa bean.
nough said.
Comment by shore Wednesday, Nov 17, 10 @ 12:20 pm
Now Costello is the only Democratic congresscritter to not have at least part of their district within the city of Chicago. The Democratic charge in suburbs may have been shortlived.
Comment by kj Wednesday, Nov 17, 10 @ 12:51 pm
===candidate a represents a district that has been democrat forever===
“democrat” is not an adjective.
Comment by Obamarama Wednesday, Nov 17, 10 @ 1:06 pm
4 conservatives = Republicans
1 conservative = Republican
1 conservative party = Republican
4 liberals = Democrats
1 liberal = Democrat
1 liberal party = Democrat
Comment by Cincinnatus Wednesday, Nov 17, 10 @ 2:23 pm
It a pleasure to see that a candidate who had used such ugly negative ads lost. I think that Walsh’s lack of money for TV ads made him look above the fray by not being a mudsliger
Comment by Plutocrat03 Wednesday, Nov 17, 10 @ 2:24 pm
Yellow Dog Democrat is correct. Green Party candidate Bill Scheurer certainly had more than the margin of victory for Bean.
However, all the media blew this one, despite a poll by WeAskAmerica that showed the two tied in the low 40’s.
Is that polling firm so discredited that no one bothered to report on its findings?
Or were reporters just stuck in their heart-felt desire to see Bean re-elected?
Comment by Cal Skinner Wednesday, Nov 17, 10 @ 3:31 pm
–“Everybody would admit that it was a race that wasn’t on anybody’s radar,” said Illinois Republican Party chairman Pat Brady. “We made a mistake.”–
If they didn’t see the Walsh voters up there in that GOP district, they probably left a lot of Brady voters in the field, too.
Bean had been playing with house (not House) money in that district for a while. Surfer Joe is just riding the wave.
Comment by wordslinger Wednesday, Nov 17, 10 @ 3:47 pm
Thank goodness the Bean-counting is over. At least she did not pull a Phil Crane-style concession.
Comment by Jake from Elwood Wednesday, Nov 17, 10 @ 4:04 pm
The majority of the 8th stayed home. This was a base against base campaign. It was really about the “R”. I still have a hard time believing those who worked hard for what they have in Barrington, gave this guy the nod when he himself has so many personal financial indiscretions (bankruptcy, foreclosure, suspended driver license, SR-22s etc)
Comment by DMAC57 Thursday, Nov 18, 10 @ 7:05 am
=== It’s not like that candidate was invisible. ===
Oh, I agree completely Rich.
I’m just pointing out the deeper problem.
Bean’s had problems with The Left since Day One.
Its the Rahm Problem.
Why not move to the center? What are liberals going to do — vote for the Republican?
Um, No.
But sometimes they’ll vote for the Green Party candidate or just not vote for you.
Moving to the Middle is easy.
Doing what Jack Franks has done — fight from the center but hold onto the Left — that takes political skill.
P.S. Where was the U.S. Chamber defense of Bean this year?
Comment by Yellow Dog Democrat Thursday, Nov 18, 10 @ 7:12 am