Will tea party play in the 'burbs? 8th District race may tell

Strong Election Day showings are predicted from tea party candidates in Alaska, Kentucky, Nevada and Delaware, but can the conservative movement win over the Chicago suburbs?

The answer might come Tuesday in the 8th Congressional District where unabashed tea party candidate Joe Walsh hopes the populist wave that propelled him past five opponents in a surprise Republican primary win along with some unorthodox campaign tactics translates into success over Democrat incumbent Melissa Bean.

Rarely does Walsh, a McHenry resident who refers to himself as a tea partier first and a Republican second, finish a speech without referring to this as a time of “revolution.”

Throughout his campaign, he's stood alongside tea partiers dressed in Revolutionary War-era costumes at rallies. He took part in an impromptu reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance at a recent candidates' forum to the dismay of its moderator. His supporters have brought video cameras to Bean's public appearances, peppered her with questions and posted the recordings online.

“His (Walsh's) best opportunity to win this election has to do with trying to stir up the base and get people as excited as they seem to be in other parts of the country where the tea movement is stronger,” DePaul University political science professor Michael Mezey said.

Walsh campaign manager Nick Provenzano wouldn't comment specifically on those examples and instead said, “We feel (Bean's) positions are the radical positions, not ours.”

Bean's response to Walsh's campaign mainly has been to stay above the fray and not engage him.

Outside of one candidates' forum at Grayslake Central High School, Bean, of Barrington, didn't take up multiple challenges by Walsh to further debate him.

She declined invites to several public forums where Walsh was expected, though pointed out numerous other events rotary clubs, veterans forums, small business breakfasts and leadership summits where she took questions from citizens.

Mezey said not debating was smart strategy on Bean's part.

“A general rule with an incumbent who's a front-runner is that it's a mistake to engage in debates because you simply elevate the visibility of a challenger,” he said. “You're sharing your platform and celebrity.”

Mezey points to a lack of Democratic Party money being spent on the race and a lack of nonpartisan polling as signs Bean is favored to win.

Provenzano says Bean has avoided debates because she can't defend her votes on issues like cap-and-trade and the health care bill.

“Between 55 and 70 percent of people (in the 8th district) don't want these bills, and she won't defend her position, which tells me she's not in the mainstream,” he said. “She took a hard left sometime after Obama was elected and now she's resorted to nasty name-calling.”

Bean doesn't apologize for recent ads and mailers that paint Walsh as radical, saying her opponent is taking a reckless fiscal approach to cutting government spending with proposals to eliminate the department of energy, department of education and the Environmental Protection Agency.

“He's not moderate, from his positions on assault weapons thinking there's no need for a ban, to being anti-choice even when a woman's life is at stake,” Bean said. “That's not in alignment with the families of the 8th District.”