Another survivor of the Obama tsunami is Lisle Township's Mike Connelly, who we first introduced to you before this past March's GOP primary. Connelly won in a three-way 48th District House race to succeed retiring State Rep. Jim Meyer in what was to be a fairly safe Republican district. By the end of the 2008 campaign, no Republican seat in Illinois was considered "safe." But Connelly not only survived Tuesday's onslaught, he won handily, despite Democrat Joseph Heneghan riding the Obama wave to scoop up 48 percent.
Connelly will be another new conservative to the Republican House caucus, and you need to know him. We re-run an Illinois Review interview from October 2007:
Connelly, a former Lisle village trustee, says he is proud of the District 5 he was elected to represent on the DuPage County Board in 2006. District 5, reaching from Lisle westward to Naperville, is twice the size of the 48th district he would represent in the State House.
“This is a district of achievers,” Connelly said. “They are used to working hard and seeing results. That’s what they want from their legislators. They’re tired of mediocre government.”
