The 8th District Congressional seat will be filled by a Republican for the next two years following the concession by incumbent Democratic Congresswoman Melissa Bean in the squeaker race for the seat.
Bean won the seat in 2004, following an election that unseated Republican Philip Crane who was first elected to a seat in the then 13th Congressional District in a 1969 Special Election to fill the seat vacated when Donald Rumsfeld was appointed to a position in the Nixon Administration. Crane was elected over six other candidates at the time.
Crane was elected to a full term in 1970 and re-elected 16 times until his defeat by Democrat Melissa Bean in 2004. Congressional districts are based on population and the area Crane served changed several times over the years from the 13th to the 12th to the 8th. Currently the areas of the 8th District include: Chicago's northwest suburbs of Hoffman Estates, Arlington Heights, Schaumburg, and Palatine. In Lake County, Zion, Gurnee, Mundelein, and Barrington are in the District. Also included in the district is the Cook County portion of Elgin. In McHenry County, McHenry and Woodstock areas are part of the District.
The race was not decided easily and the results were very close, about 300 votes in favor of Walsh.
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