Tea party favorite claims victory in U.S. House race — but nothing settled yet

Walsh holds slim margin, but Bean isn't walking away

Relishing his unexpectedly strong Election Day showing, Joe Walsh posed the rhetorical question both parties will have to confront if he holds on to his sliver of a margin over northwest suburban Democratic Rep. Melissa Bean.

"How in God's name did a guy win without any money or party support?" he asked.

If he wins, Walsh said, the answer will be that he harnessed the anger of conservatives and independents within the ranks of the tea party movement. He "cracked the code" for Republicans, he said, showing the party how to move beyond its base to capture tea party voters who favor a "revolution" of austerity and restraint in Washington.

While Walsh ran largely without support from his party, he could join three other new Republican representatives from the Chicago area preparing to storm Congress as part of the national GOP surge.

Robert Dold, succeeding Mark Kirk in the north suburban 10th District, espouses the type of centrist views that sent Kirk to Washington repeatedly. Adam Kinzinger in the south suburban 11th and Randy Hultgren in the west suburban 14th are staunch conservatives who enjoyed tea party backing.

Those men will be among at least 60 new GOP representatives expected to clash with President Barack Obama and the still-majority-Democratic Senate.

Walsh was ahead by about 550 votes with all precincts reporting in Cook, Lake and McHenry counties. He declared victory at 4 a.m. Wednesday, but Bean did not concede. A three-term incumbent, Bean was waiting to hear the results from "potentially thousands" of provisional and absentee ballots that could swing the 8th District race, said Jonathan Lipman, her spokesman.

Sipping Coca-Cola during an interview Wednesday, Walsh remained a bundle of nervous excitement following a sleepless election night. A silver-haired 48-year-old who speaks rapidly and stridently about his political views, he went from slouching in his chair to standing behind it to sitting in it with his legs pulled to his chest as though he were executing a "cannonball" from the high-dive.

"I don't sit still," he said.

After he outran a crowded field in the Republican primary, Walsh, of McHenry, drew scant support from his party's establishment. While Bean, of Barrington, raised nearly $2 million and aired a television ad attacking Walsh as "dangerous" on social issues, Walsh raised less than $500,000 and depended on shoe-leather campaigning and a network of volunteers.

"If (GOP leaders) had given me money, this wouldn't have been close," he said.

Much of the publicity surrounding the race focused on concerns about Walsh's recent personal history. He lost a home to foreclosure in October 2009, his driver's license was suspended twice in 2008 after he failed to appear in court, and he was cited twice for not having auto insurance in June 2009, according to court records and state officials.

His campaign was torn by strife, and staffers quit and criticized him in public. A lawsuit filed by a former campaign organizer seeking $20,000 in back pay is pending in court.

Walsh, a Barrington High School graduate who describes his job as coordinating investment capital for businesses, said the news media and Bean underestimated both his candidacy and the northwest suburban tea party movement.

He said his supporters were a broad coalition of the angry and politically disenchanted who don't agree on social issues but see the federal government as too expensive and intrusive. He intends to work for the repeal of Obama's health reform law.

Walsh believes his out-of-the-blue performance will make him a "larger figure" in the party.

"The Republican Party, I think, has learned a valuable lesson — not to underestimate the strength of grass-roots politics," he said.

Lipman declined to comment on Bean's campaign tack against Walsh.

DePaul University political scientist Michael Mezey said the overarching issues of the campaign — the economy and the sense that the country is on the wrong track — may have trumped questions about Walsh's personal history. And some voters care only whether an "R" or a "D" appears next to a candidate's name, he said.

Political scientist Matt Streb of Northern Illinois University in DeKalb said he thinks many voters did not embrace Walsh so much as they rejected Bean.

"Bean portrays herself as a fiscal conservative, but she voted for health care and she voted for the bank bailout," he said, "and those are votes that don't look like a fiscal conservative."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-congress-walsh-bean-20101103,0,3223957.story