Bean: "We Need Grown Ups in the Room"
Former Congresswoman Melissa Bean, who is seeking to reclaim her old 8th District congressional seat.
Melissa Bean walked off the political stage 16 years ago.
Swept up in the national Tea Party wave in 2010, Bean was replaced by a right-wing opponent who lasted one term in the seat.
Politics in the United States have changed dramatically since the middle of the first Obama administration, but Bean is back in the arena, hoping to regain her old seat in Congress.
Bean is one of eight Democrats on the March 17 ballot seeking to replace Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Schaumburg), who is seeking the U.S. Senate nomination.
We spoke to Bean Tuesday about her decision to re-enter politics and the state of the race with less than a week to go before Election Day.
Bean said she decided to get in the race in part due to the frustrations she has with the current state of politics.
“You could keep throwing your shoe at the television or you can do something about it,” Bean said with a chuckle. “I was encouraged to get back in and bring my experience to the table at a really critical time in our nation’s history.”
Bean spent time in both the moderate “Blue Dog” Democrat and “New Democrat” coalitions in her time in Congress. Bean says her reputation is as a problem solver, and voters are responding to that.
“I think what [voters] know me as is a problem solver. And that’s what we used to do was really look for opportunities for growth and supporting the middle class,” Bean said. “I think you just have to find where the common sense is. Democrats and Republicans are really unhappy about issues of affordability. I don’t think those are partisan issues. I think a lot of the things people are concerned about in Washington tends to be very partisan. But I think when you get back and you talk to families, we do care about we care about the same things.”
At a time when politics is tribalistic and divisive and members of Congress have, at times, seemed more caricatures than public servants, Bean says voters are ready for serious people to take the reins of government.
“People are sick of the chaos in Washington. Literally to the person. We need grown ups in the room because [voters] just don’t feel like that’s existing in Washington,” she said. “There’s a lot of pettiness and childishness, and there’s some angst and some anger. But anger is not an answer. We need real solutions, and that’s what I’m known for. That’s my brand, is looking at both opportunities and challenges and coming up with the best way forward, and then helping drive some consensus towards that and getting things done.”
Bean has been criticized by opponents for spending on her behalf by committees connected to the America Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a topic she mostly brushed past when brought up.
“I was a front runner from the minute I started in this race,” Bean said. “So the arrows have been coming my way ever since. There have been many lines of attack and arrows sent my way from my opponents, so I’m letting them do that.”
Cook County Board member Kevin Morrison, businessman Neil Khot, who has injected over $1 million of his own money in the race, and former Department of Commerce attorney Dan Tully are among the top contenders in the race.
The 8th District stretches from Rosemont and the O’Hare area west to Elgin and St. Charles, including Carpentersville, Hoffman Estates, Schaumburg, and Des Plaines.
