Office transition gets complicated in the 8th District

As new members of Congress replace their predecessors, a certain amount of teamwork must take place for the changing of the guard to go smoothly.

Take the 14th District, where, despite a hard-fought campaign between Democratic incumbent Bill Foster and Republican challenger Randy Hultgren, Hultgren spokesman Andrew Flach describes a “good handoff.”

But in the 8th District, where Republican Joe Walsh defeated three-term Democratic incumbent Melissa Bean by just 291 votes in November, the transition has been much more complicated.

Walsh says he’s tried to contact Bean and her staff several times in recent weeks about a number of issues, but has received no response at all.

Bean, however, says she’s never been contacted by Walsh and that a number of his concerns are non-issues.

So months after the election finally ended, the McHenry Republican and Barrington Democrat still appear to be at odds.

Walsh says the frustrating startup was “a real eye opener.

“I mistakenly went into the process thinking there would be a smooth transition, where we could put politics aside,“ he said.

But doing just that — putting politics aside — is seemingly impossible these days, as party leadership start up the campaign cycle almost as soon as members are seated because they serve relatively short, two-year House terms.

And while Bean is not saying if she plans to run again to regain her seat, news broke last week that Democratic Congressional Committee Chairman Steve Israel plans to recruit former members, including Bean, to run for their old seats come 2012.

Bean, who Friday spoke publicly for the first time since her Nov. 16 concession speech, said she “never received a call from him or anyone else (in his office).”

Walsh’s office has filed a report with the Chief Administrative Officer about missing government equipment — two iPads and a laptop — that had been in the custody of the 8th District Congressional office.

Bean says it’s an inventory mistake. One of the iPads was hers and another belonged to a staffer, and both were returned, she said. “It came to our attention weeks afterward that it was not in the paperwork,” she said.

She said she doesn’t know what happened to the laptop, saying that a slew of people came and went from the Congressional office space from the time that she moved out and Walsh and his staff moved in.

Walsh’s staff also says they’ve had problems with constituent files — that they’ve been unable to access open case files on immigration issues, grant and military academy applications that 8th District residents have called with questions about.

Bean says her staff worked hard to make sure every file that could be closed out was by the time she left office.

Constituents whose cases were not yet closed, she said, would have been informed by Bean staffers that it was possible, with consent, to turn over case information to the new Congressman, but no one ever called.

“We were instructed not to turn over open cases, as it would violate the Privacy Act release forms signed by those that we served,” Bean said.

Bean said she directed new cases not to Walsh’s office, but to the offices of Sens. Dick Durbin and Mark Kirk.

“We didn’t know (where Walsh’s office) was going to be,” Bean said. “I had a cell phone for Joe. I wasn’t going to direct people to that.”

Bean, who spoke by phone from the airport Friday before boarding a plane from Washington, declined to disclose her future plans.

In the 14th District, the transition was smooth, said Flach, Hultgren’s spokesman.

Former Democratic Rep. Bill Foster — another of the House Democrats who lost his seat that Israel plans to recruit to run in 2012 — “worked with our staff to ensure all casework and equipment got transferred in a timely manner. No complaints, Flach said.”

Daily Herald staff writer Nicole Thompson contributed to this report.