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CD-8, Walsh ran ahead of Romney which surprised the hell out of me given his difficulties. Makes me think the district is more amenable than the Obama percentage would indicate (When you run ahead of normal performance like Obama did in IL and CA, anomalies can occur, there’s no way that CD 10 is actually marginally more conservative than CD 8) and that Suckworth is something of a paper tiger. I suspect Walsh would have held on under the old lines. Goel was recruited to run by the “evil” Pete Sessions so I’m surprised I’m not seeing tons of people bash her and tout her opponent. If Auh2o’s financial figures are accurate, that’s not a race, Goel wins and has a good shot in November.

I heard Walsh worked the district well and probably got points for good constituency service.

And as for the reasons why Walsh los in 2012t, yeah, not paying child support may have been one of them—maybe Republicans in IL-08 shouldn’t have been scouring the unemployment lines or the bankruptcy filings for their nominee. While Duckworth is a scumbag, Walsh has no one to blame for his downfall but his own irresponsibility and dishonesty. He never warned the GOP about his irresponsibility, and then compounded it by lending his campaign money that he could have used to make his child-support payments:

The Republicans basically punted on hunting up a top-flight candidate for this seat in 2010, ironic, as IL-8 was one of IL's most Republican seats for many years. Walsh's win over Melissa Bean came as a big shock.

Yes, constituent service matters, a lot. If you see someone underperforming in their district, bad service is probably a key reason why. And good service will up the winning margin.

Walsh rode the tea party wave to primary victory in 2010 against an uninspiring field, the failure to find true top-tier candidates to run (either in 2006, 08, 10 or now) is curious. But because of the seat’s then GOP lean I wasn’t shocked at his victory, which was very narrow with a Green costing Bean victory.