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Jim Walsh (Illinois)
From Ballotpedia
This page was current at the end of the individual's last campaign covered by Ballotpedia. Please contact us with any updates.
Jim Walsh (Republican Party) ran for election to the Illinois House of Representatives to represent District 62. He lost in the general election on November 3, 2020.
Walsh completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Jim Walsh was born in Evergreen Park, Illinois. He obtained an undergraduate degree from McMurry University in May 2007 and a graduate degree from Purdue University in May 2009. Walsh was an aircraft electrician in the U.S. Air Force from 1995 to 2007. He began working as a medical physicist in 2009, for which he was certified by the American Board of Radiology. Before that, he was a gas station attendant from 1991 to 1995 and worked at McDonald's from 1987 to 1991. As of 2020, Walsh was a member of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine.[1]
Elections
2020
See also: Illinois House of Representatives elections, 2020
General election
General election for Illinois House of Representatives District 62
Incumbent Sam Yingling defeated Jim Walsh in the general election for Illinois House of Representatives District 62 on November 3, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Sam Yingling (D) | 56.9 | 27,215 |
Jim Walsh (R)  | 43.1 | 20,619 | ||
| Total votes: 47,834 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Illinois House of Representatives District 62
Incumbent Sam Yingling advanced from the Democratic primary for Illinois House of Representatives District 62 on March 17, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Sam Yingling | 100.0 | 9,762 |
| Total votes: 9,762 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Republican primary election
Republican primary for Illinois House of Representatives District 62
Jim Walsh advanced from the Republican primary for Illinois House of Representatives District 62 on March 17, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Jim Walsh | 100.0 | 2,992 | |
| Total votes: 2,992 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Campaign themes
2020
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Jim Walsh completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Walsh's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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I am a Christian family man. I am also a veteran and a medical physicist. I am these things because I choose to have them define me. As a Christian, I choose to try to see the divine and myself in everyone I meet and work towards their best interest. As a family man, I try to put my wife's and children's well being first always. As an Air Force veteran my core values are integrity first, service before self and excellence in all i do. I also first learned how to dissect a problem, find the root cause and implement a solution. As a medical physicist, I honed and expanded my troubleshooting skills. I have learned how to research, separate fact from fiction and, most of all when to ask for help. I believe that each person must be free to act in order to have a meaningful life. I believe that the purpose of the U.S. Constitution is to guarantee that freedom so long as one doesn't harm another. Finally, I believe that it applies to all people especially those with the most power over others, our representatives in government.
- Government must be lean - only large enough to do its duty to we the people.
- Government must be clean - transparent and most importantly accountable to we the people.
- Government must be local - the power of control over we the people must rest either in our hands or the level of government closest to us based on the need for control
I am passionate about K-12 education and keeping government control as local as possible to include we the people governing ourselves.
K-12 education: Schools need to be accountable to parents and students. For that to happen, they must be free to set policy unencumbered by mandates from state government. Schools, parents and employees must be free to work together to maximize the likelihood that children will become adults who live lives of meaning and worth. The state must implement policy that encourages all to participate instead of making laws that discourage parental engagement in the process of educating children.
I do and always have looked up to my dad. He showed me what it means to live your life for someone because he did that every day for us. He showed me what it is to serve by always being active at church and at our schools. He even made sure people watched my cross country races if he couldn't be there. He was always the first to offer a helping hand. He encouraged me to learn and grow by making a game out of learning and asking probing questions. He always knew the right question to ask. So much so that my wife would get upset that she'd sometimes find out what is going on when he called. He is the person I want to be.
I think the most important principle for an elected official is to remember that he is a representative of the people in her district. Yes, every person running has a platform he is running on. However, no matter how extensive, that platform will never cover every decision she needs to make. Also, after getting elected he may find that there are obstacles to her platform that require resetting priorities. Remembering that he is there to represent the people and not to push her own agenda will make decision making easier. Also, remembering that he is a representative not a lord will help her remember that he is accountable to the people and lead to more transparency, less mandates and more freedom of choice for all people in the state.
I would like to leave Illinois with citizens who are free to help each other, who are empathetic of their neighbors and who can live in Illinois from birth through childhood as adults and in retirement. I think we do this by fortifying the K-12 education, empowering parents to raise their children and by making our government smaller and more accessible to the people.
My favorite book is The Sojourner by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. The book is about the adult life of Asahel Linden, a simple farmer living in the central U.S. in the early 20th century. I love that the book showcases the extraordinary in the ordinary. Without preaching, it shows that we are indeed luminous beings. It is an example of how living an intentional life can be a light to the world. A story of a good person succeeding and failing. In the end a triumph of good over evil.
Illinois government is in massive debt, corrupt and not meeting the needs of the people. One great challenge over the next decade will be finding the political will to say that the state government should not be a provider of services. That should be provided by local government. Finding Another will be the state government taking responsibility for making promises that can't be met. A third will be convincing the taxpayers of the state that we need to get rid of the pension backlog soonest if we are to ever get out from under it. The last will be designing a K-12 public education system that engages parents and cedes control of their children's education to them.
I absolutely believe relationships are beneficial. Each district has its own needs. Each representative a unique life experience. So, each representative brings a different and necessary perspective to each problem the state has. We need to foster communication in order to hear each and every perspective. When a person has a relationship of respect and trust with another he is more willing to share her perspective. So, we do need good relationships in the legislature. What we don't need is quid pro quo relationships between legislators that make representatives loyal to each other instead of their respective constituencies.
I would want to be a part of any committee that has to do with K-12 education. I want to play an active role in committing to the Evidence-Based Model. That means i want to see the unfunded mandates gone. I want a hand in writing an Opt Out law so that parents can save their kids from the massive testing that is being required of schools. Speaking of which, I want to see Illinois move away from showing a test score to growth scores based on curriculum and classroom achievement. I want to help all parents and guardians have the chance to find a school for their children when the local public schools fail them not just the rich.
I also want to be on any committee that deal with public employee compensation. I think it would put me in the best place to learn and to influence the policy that is the largest drain on state funding.
I also want to be on any committee that deal with public employee compensation. I think it would put me in the best place to learn and to influence the policy that is the largest drain on state funding.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
See also
2020 Elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on March 12, 2020
Current members of the Illinois House of Representatives
Leadership
Speaker of the House:Emanuel Welch
Majority Leader:Robyn Gabel
Minority Leader:Tony McCombie
Representatives
District 1
Aaron Ortiz (D)
District 2
District 3
Eva Delgado (D)
District 4
Lilian Jiménez (D)
District 5
District 6
Sonya Harper (D)
District 7
Emanuel Welch (D)
District 8
La Shawn Ford (D)
District 9
Yolonda Morris (D)
District 10
District 11
Ann Williams (D)
District 12
Margaret Croke (D)
District 13
Hoan Huynh (D)
District 14
Kelly Cassidy (D)
District 15
Michael Kelly (D)
District 16
Kevin Olickal (D)
District 17
District 18
Robyn Gabel (D)
District 19
Lindsey LaPointe (D)
District 20
Brad Stephens (R)
District 21
District 22
District 23
Edgar Gonzalez (D)
District 24
Theresa Mah (D)
District 25
Curtis Tarver (D)
District 26
Kambium Buckner (D)
District 27
Justin Slaughter (D)
District 28
Robert Rita (D)
District 29
Thaddeus Jones (D)
District 30
William Davis (D)
District 31
Michael Crawford (D)
District 32
Lisa Davis (D)
District 33
Marcus Evans (D)
District 34
Nicholas Smith (D)
District 35
Mary Gill (D)
District 36
Rick Ryan (D)
District 37
Patrick Sheehan (R)
District 38
District 39
Will Guzzardi (D)
District 40
Jaime Andrade (D)
District 41
Janet Yang Rohr (D)
District 42
Terra Howard (D)
District 43
Anna Moeller (D)
District 44
Fred Crespo (D)
District 45
Martha Deuter (D)
District 46
District 47
Amy Grant (R)
District 48
District 49
Maura Hirschauer (D)
District 50
District 51
Nabeela Syed (D)
District 52
District 53
Nicolle Grasse (D)
District 54
Mary Beth Canty (D)
District 55
Martin Moylan (D)
District 56
Michelle Mussman (D)
District 57
Tracy Katz Muhl (D)
District 58
Bob Morgan (D)
District 59
Daniel Didech (D)
District 60
Rita Mayfield (D)
District 61
Joyce Mason (D)
District 62
Laura Dias (D)
District 63
Steven Reick (R)
District 64
Tom Weber (R)
District 65
Dan Ugaste (R)
District 66
Suzanne Ness (D)
District 67
Maurice West (D)
District 68
Dave Vella (D)
District 69
Joe Sosnowski (R)
District 70
Jeff Keicher (R)
District 71
Daniel Swanson (R)
District 72
Gregg Johnson (D)
District 73
Ryan Spain (R)
District 74
Brad Fritts (R)
District 75
Jed Davis (R)
District 76
Amy Briel (D)
District 77
Norma Hernandez (D)
District 78
Camille Lilly (D)
District 79
Jackie Haas (R)
District 80
Anthony DeLuca (D)
District 81
District 82
Nicole La Ha (R)
District 83
Matt Hanson (D)
District 84
District 85
Dagmara Avelar (D)
District 86
Lawrence Walsh (D)
District 87
Bill Hauter (R)
District 88
Regan Deering (R)
District 89
Tony McCombie (R)
District 90
John Cabello (R)
District 91
Sharon Chung (D)
District 92
District 93
Travis Weaver (R)
District 94
Norine Hammond (R)
District 95
Mike Coffey (R)
District 96
Sue Scherer (D)
District 97
Harry Benton (D)
District 98
Natalie Manley (D)
District 99
Kyle Moore (R)
District 100
C.D. Davidsmeyer (R)
District 101
Chris Miller (R)
District 102
Adam Niemerg (R)
District 103
Carol Ammons (D)
District 104
District 105
Dennis Tipsword (R)
District 106
Jason Bunting (R)
District 107
Brad Halbrook (R)
District 108
Wayne Rosenthal (R)
District 109
Charles Meier (R)
District 110
Blaine Wilhour (R)
District 111
Amy Elik (R)
District 112
Katie Stuart (D)
District 113
Jay Hoffman (D)
District 114
Kevin Schmidt (R)
District 115
David Friess (R)
District 116
Dave Severin (R)
District 117
District 118
Paul Jacobs (R)
Democratic Party (78)
Republican Party (40)
