Deer Park's Vehe Barn
I posted photos from last Monday’s Town Hall Meeting with constituents held in Deer Park, but was attending the McHenry City Council meeting concerning the troublesome property taxpayer-subsidized condo briar parch on Downtown Green Street.
Former Chicago Tribune reporter Jim Warren was there, however, and used his skill with words to capture the event. My thanks to Dave Diersen’s GOPUSA ILLINOIS for pointing me to the article. (Diersen provides a free set of links to political articles to whoever signs up.)
I would encourage you to read the whole story, probably the best I have ever read on a Town Hall Meeting.
Warren characterizes Walsh as a “no-shot candidate” and that he was from all reporter’s views who covered (or more likely didn’t cover) his 291-vote victory over three-term Democrat incumbent Melissa Bean. (There was a poll the last week of September that put Walsh and Bean at 41%, but the main stream media ignored it.)
He describes Walsh as a “disciplined ringmaster” who has evolved from “ evolution of a politician who was high on gumption, low on cash and forsaken by the Republican Party.”
"Ringmaster" Joe Walsh works the crowd in Deer Park, one of the Barrington villages.
Walsh ran the event as a “hybrid of elementary-school teacher, drill sergeant and affable TV talk show host in the Phil Donahue genre.”
Warren says the crowd was “far-over-capacity” with most being over 50 with Fox being their favorite cable station and “exhibited both sophistication about the political process and conspiracy-driven ignorance.”
For those who don’t know Warren’s background, he was the labor reporter for the Tribune, and while serving a stint with the Washington Bureau, delighted in reporting on Nixon’s tapes as they were released.
But, even allowing for his bias, the article is chock-full of information.
A position I didn’t know about, but adopted in the mid-1990’s, is Walsh’s opposition to ethanol subsidies. I figure back then that if a couple of decades of subsidies couldn’t make alcohol stand on its two feet, it didn’t deserve further subsidy.
My memory tells me that Illinois is in the process of spending $1 billion over ten years in tax exemptions in a bill signed by Rod Blagojevich the first year he was in office.
And, the “I don’t care if I only serve one term” congressman told Warren too many of his colleagues “want to be something, not do something,”
The “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead” approach is revealed in his disdain for legislators who don’t make themselves vulnerable by holding Town Hall Meetings.
The woman he beat took that approach and Walsh is clearly not going to follow in those footsteps…even if something is recorded that could hurt him the next election. Indeed, last time around Walsh told TV interviewers things that I said, “There’s a negative TV ad.”
In a district with some townships having as high a proportion as 25% in small business, Walsh attacked “welfare for the rich and corporations at the expense of small business,” according to Warren’s article for the Chicago News Cooperative.
You’ll enjoy reading the conclusion of Warren’s article about a shift in Walsh’s take on his constituents’ budget views.