Posted on 11/12/2010 4:16:53 PM PST by iowamark
MOLINE, Ill. - Newly elected Congressman Bobby Schilling and his wife Christie stopped for a quick bite this week at the restaurant they own, Saint Giuseppe's Heavenly Pizza, where the hand-tossed taco pizza is a favorite and the walls are decorated with crosses and psalms.
The tea party-affiliated congressman-elect couldn't get a moment's peace, however, as supporters continually interrupted to offer congratulations for the Republican's upset victory in a west-central Illinois district that has gone Democratic for nearly 30 years.
"I still have to pinch myself," said the chatty pizzeria owner and father of 10. "They continued to call me 'the pizza boy' and didn't believe the threat was real until about two weeks ago."
Schilling, 46, is among at least 30 tea party-affiliated candidates nationwide who campaigned on big promises of enforcing financial restraint in Washington and paring back President Barack Obama's health care reforms.
But he admits it'll be tough to get things done in Congress, given the divisive party politics and tensions between Republican leaders and tea party activists. He also acknowledged there could be consequences for not delivering, from the very supporters who put him in office...
Schilling's win in the 17th District, with 53 percent of the vote, demonstrated the tea party's potential reach, even in Obama's home state. The movement played at least some role in at least three other congressional wins for Illinois Republicans, giving the GOP a majority in the state's 19-member congressional delegation for the first time in seven years.
The 17th District sprawls from Moline, a Mississippi River city of 43,000 residents - and headquarters of Deere & Co., the global farm equipment maker - through other industrial and farming areas to the south and east. It has had a Democratic congressman for nearly three decades.
The incumbent, Congressman Phil Hare, was first elected in 2006...
He had no GOP challenger in 2008, and even national Republicans largely ignored this year's race until midsummer. But then the National Republican Congressional Committee got involved, enrolling Schilling in its "Young Guns" coaching program for up-and-coming candidates in June. National Republicans poured in about $500,000 for ads, Schilling said.
"It's a race that broke late," said Tom Erickson, a spokesman for the NRCC. "It looked like he had a steep hill to climb."
Hare declined interview requests from the Associated Press. But some Democrats suggested it was poor turnout that hurt him most. For instance, in Rock Island County, where both candidates have ties, only 37 percent of voters went to the polls, according to the county clerk's office.
Local Democrats have called the win a temporary aberration, citing Democratic wins for sheriff, treasurer and several county board races. Democratic state Sen. Mike Jacobs, whose area includes Moline, predicted Democrats would win the seat back in two years.
Jacobs blamed the outside money being poured into Schilling's campaign and negative ads he said unfairly characterized Hare's comments about the Constitution and the deficit, turning him into "a cartoon character."
"Phil allowed himself to be pigeonholed as a candidate of the Democratic left," Jacobs said. "Schilling did a good job of turning him into (House Speaker) Nancy Pelosi."
Surprisingly ( or not?) the article fails to mention Hare’s infamous, viral video when he declares the Constitution “irrelevant”
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