Human Events-Illinois’ 8th U.S. House District

Gizzi's Races of the Week

by John Gizzi



04/13/2010
Walsh vs. Bean



Democrats and Republicans alike in Illinois’s 8th District (suburban Chicago) are still wondering how on earth Joe Walsh—a one time inner-city Chicago teacher—ever defeated six opponents on a budget of $130,000 (“all small donations,” notes the candidate) to win the GOP primary to oppose three-term Democratic Rep. Melissa Bean?

“It was the Tea Party movement here—pure and simple,” says Walsh, who has never held elective office. “We have about 10-12 different Tea Party groups in and around Chicago and I spoke to each of them. They liked my message of cutting taxes, opposing government stimulus and bailout programs and opportunity.”

The 47-year-old Walsh recalled how “about 100 to 200 Tea Partiers provided ‘boots on the ground’ for me in the primary—going door-to-door, licking envelopes, making calls and driving supporters to the polls.”

Not only did it work but, as Walsh predicts, “after my opponent’s vote for the healthcare bill, the phones at our headquarters haven’t stopped ringing. We’ll have four to five times that number of volunteers by the fall!”

“Out of touch” is how University of Chicago graduate Walsh labels Bean (lifetime American Conservative Union rating: 30%), repeatedly noting that “she never held a single town hall meeting with her constituents before she voted for Obama’s healthcare plan. How can you vote on an issue that important if you don’t talk to your folks at home?” (Since the vote, Bean has held meetings, but they have been invitation-only.)

To underscore his point, Walsh is holding town hall meetings of his won focusing on alternatives to the recently enacted Obamacare. And, they're open to all, his supporters emphasize.

Although he has never held office, Joe Walsh has been around public policy for much of his life, having worked for the Heartland Institute and the Milton and Rose Friedman Foundation. At a time when Tea Party candidates are portrayed in the media as prophets of gloom and “againsters,” Walsh preaches the gospel of hope and opportunity enunciated by his heroes Friedman and Jack Kemp.

“We can give people more opportunities by ending the estate tax, the Alternative Minimum Tax, and the capital gains tax—and then cutting the corporate tax in half,” he says without hesitation. “We can then give people more money, more security and more chances to make their own decisions.”

As an example, Walsh cites his own work as executive director of the Daniel Murphy Scholarship Fund, in which role he oversaw the awarding of 150 privately funded vouchers per year to permit 8th graders in the inner city to attend schools of their own choice.

In Bean’s last two trips to the polls, pundits usually concluded that she won because she was considered a moderate and candidates such as Joe Walsh considered “too conservative.”

“Not so in 2010,” says Walsh, “not after her votes on healthcare and stimulus packages. That’s why people here are scared. And that’s why a message of conservatism and hope resonates. This is the perfect storm.”

(Joe Walsh for Congress, 830 West Route 22 P.O. Box 56, Lake Zurich, Ill. 60047; 217-638-3543, www.walshforcongress.com)

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=36475