Joe Walsh (Illinois politician)

William Joseph "Joe" Walsh ( * December 27, 1961 in North Barrington, Lake County, Illinois) is an American politician. From 2011 to 2013 he represented the state of Illinois in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Career

Joe Walsh grew up in North Barrington and attended until 1980, the Barrington High School. Then he studied until 1985 at the University of Iowa in Iowa City. He finished his education in 1991 at the University of Chicago. He then worked as a private businessman. Politically, he joined the Republican Party. In 1996, he ran unsuccessfully for Congress. Two years later failed his candidacy for the House of Representatives from Illinois.

In the congressional elections of 2010, Walsh was in the eighth electoral district of Illinois in the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington DC chosen, where he became the successor of him previously defeated Democrat Melissa Bean on January 3, 2011. He was a member of the Committee on Homeland Security, the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and the Committee on Small Business, and in eight sub-committees. Walsh is an outspoken opponent of President Barack Obama, whom he criticized at the beginning of his time in Congress sharp. On the other hand, Walsh is not free of controversy. In September 2011, he was one of 19 members of Congress who have been reprimanded by the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington for ethical violations. He got among other things in the headlines because he due to lack of insurance payments lost his license because he got with child support payments in arrears and because he taunted his political opponent Tammy Duckworth, who lost as a helicopter pilot, her legs in the Iraq war. Walsh doubted their status as disabled veterans.

In the congressional elections in 2012, he then lost with 45:55 percent of the vote against Tammy Duckworth, the on January 3, 2013 could replace him with it in Parliament.