Congressional hopeful Walsh moves into 8th District

It's not the Barrington address he initially promised, but Republican 8th Congressional District candidate Joe Walsh has moved into the area he wants to represent.

Walsh - who's trying to unseat three-term incumbent Democrat Melissa Bean in the November election - described the rented house in McHenry as a "simple" three-bedroom home. He acknowledged the house backs up to the Chapel Hill Golf Club, an 18-hole public course.

Walsh and his wife, Helene, secured the house earlier this month and moved in Monday, campaign spokeswoman Whitney Schlosser said.

Walsh said he's paying $2,000 a month - less than the $3,300 month he'd been paying for a rented, colonial-style house in Winnetka.

"It's just a nice, simple home," Walsh said. "Nothing fancy, mister - I can tell you that."

The move was a long time coming. In September 2009, when Walsh announced he was exploring a bid for the 8th District seat, he sent out a news release in which he identified himself as a Barrington native who planned to move back to his hometown when he launched his campaign.

The Walsh campaign later clarified his childhood home was in North Barrington, not Barrington.

During a six-way GOP primary campaign, Walsh was criticized for living in Winnetka, which is far out of the 8th District, in the 10th District.

Congressional representatives legally don't need to live in the districts they represent. Bean, for example, lives in a Barrington neighborhood in the 10th District.

When asked during the primary about his Winnetka address, Walsh criticized the lack of a residency requirement and said he would never vote for someone who didn't live in the district.

After winning the GOP nomination, Walsh promised to move into the district by the end of April. He repeated that promise during a conversation with Daily Herald reporters and editors in mid-March.

During that conversation, he backed off his earlier promise to relocate to Barrington, saying the reference to his hometown was merely figurative.

Now that he's moved in, Walsh said it feels good to be living in the district.

"Both Helene and I are going to love it up here," he said. "I never would have thought about (running for Congress) if I wasn't moving back home."

The 8th District includes parts of Cook, Lake and McHenry counties. In addition to Walsh and Bean, Green Party candidate Bill Scheurer of Lindenhurst also is running for the seat.