Walsh, local activists center stage at tea party event

As he campaigned for the Republican nomination in the suburban 8th House District, Joe Walsh's mantra was he was "a tea party conservative first and a Republican second."

That approach - reaching out to voters who feel angry and disenfranchised by the U.S. government, especially the people who participated in tea party protests last year - worked for Walsh when he handily won the GOP nomination Feb. 2.

It also earned him some attention this past weekend when he attended the National Tea Party convention in Nashville, Tenn.

Walsh, of Winnetka, teamed with two activists in the tea party movement and a conservative blogger, all from Illinois, on Friday to talk about his campaign strategy and the tea party movement's impact on the Illinois primaries.

"I had a fairly receptive crowd," Walsh recalled Monday. "They were incredibly curious to hear from me, how it felt to run and the things we did to win."

The other panelists were Bruce Donnelly, a Barrington tea party activist who runs a political Web site called surgeusa.org, John Biver, the editor of championnews.net, and Tim Kraulidis, who leads a Joliet tea party group.

Because the Illinois primary was the nation's first in 2010, Walsh claims the distinction of being the first tea party-backed candidate to win nomination this year.

"They wanted a candidate's perspective," Walsh said of the audience.

Walsh's presentation wasn't on the official convention schedule viewable at nationalteapartyconvention.com, nor was he listed as a featured speaker - although Biver, Kraulidis and Donnelly were featured on the Web site.

Walsh said it was a breakout discussion. He estimated about 200 people attended the talk.

Walsh admitted not getting as large a crowd as headline speaker Sarah Palin, the former Alaskan governor who was the Republican vice presidential nominee in 2008, but he didn't seem to mind.

Walsh will face three-term Democratic incumbent Melissa Bean of Barrington and Green Party nominee Bill Scheurer of Lindenhurst in the November general election.