The counting is finally over:
By a miniscule margin of 292 votes, GOP challenger Joe Walsh emerged Tuesday as the apparent winner over U.S. Rep. Melissa Bean in their nail-biting 8th District congressional race.
Walsh, a Tea Party-backed conservative, led the three-term Democrat by 347 votes at the beginning of the day, but absentee and provisional ballots tallied Tuesday by election officials narrowed that margin even further.
There’s no word on whether Bean will seek a recount, but she has a press conference scheduled for tomorrow. Walsh, whose campaign was most noted before election day for its dramatic implosion, looks primed to be a one-term wonder before he meets the buzz-saw of the Democratic-controlled redistricting machine in Illinois.
UPDATE: Via the comments, Bean has conceded.
that we can have a better democrat than bean.
7 Districts undeclared.
IL-08, NC-02, TX-27 – GOP will win.
CA-11, CA-20 – Dems will win.
NY-25 – toss up. If absentess break for Dem Maffei better than election day vote he will probably fall over the line.
NY-01 – If there are some ticket splitters Bishop may well win. Bishop claims there has been in previous years.
nm
That Walsh ran against Sidney Yates in 1996, and ran as a social liberal? He lost 63-37
“… and we don’t hear the ladies crying ’cause the story’s sad …”
Sorry, couldn’t resist!
Agree this seems like a re-winnable seat next time. We really need to start focusing on all the Republican freshmen who turned seats by low single-digit numbers. We certainly ought to be able to take 20+ back in 2012.
Interestingly, redistricting may not be the boon that it seems on first glance. The Republicans took over so many seats held by moderate to conservative democrats that they might not really be able to do much to help themselves next time. Plus I understand the due to the demographics they may need to eliminate Republican seats in some of the states that lose seats even though they may control the redistricting process. I’m probably more concerned about them being able to lock in state legislative seats than U.S. House seats.
I wonder how they got elected to this district considering how conservative they are.
Really nice topic here.
leanspa