Rep. Melissa Bean (D) Elected 2004, 1st term
Born:	Jan. 22, 1962, Chicago
Home:	Barrington
Education:	Oakton Comm. Col., A.A. 1982, Roosevelt U., B.A. 2002
Religion:	Serbian Orthodox
Marital Status:	married (Alan)
Professional Career:	Technology and sales consultant, 1982-2004.
DC Office	512 CHOB20515, 202-225-3711; Fax: 202-225-7830; Web site: www.house.gov/bean
State Offices	Schaumburg, 847-519-3434.
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Schaumburg may not be nationally known, but it is one of America's major corporate headquarters cities and one of several edge cities northwest of Chicago. Sixty years ago this was farmland, half a dozen miles beyond the orchard that is now O'Hare Airport. Today, Schaumburg--near the intersection of the Northwest Tollway and I-290, with lots of office space and Woodfield Mall and miles of subdivisions, with some moderately priced apartments--is the site of the headquarters of Motorola and Zurich American Insurance; nearby are the headquarters of Sears and Kemper Insurance. Yet Schaumburg yearns for traditions. It has built a performing arts center, formed an orchestra for young people, and has built from scratch a traditional downtown.

The 8th Congressional District of Illinois is made up of Schaumburg and dozens of similar communities to the north, on the hilly lakelands north and northwest of Chicago. Just to the north are Palatine and country-manor Barrington Hills (in-between Inverness is connected by a narrow corridor to the 10th District). The district includes the rapidly-growing western half of Lake County, with little lake communities being surrounded by new suburbs like Deer Park and Volo, and also includes the Lake Michigan town of Zion at the Wisconsin border. To the west, the 8th includes about half of fast-growing McHenry County. The tone of life is not elite, but people here are affluent. Culturally, this is part of the great rural Midwest perhaps more than it is of yeasty, lusty Chicago, though it lacks much regional identity other than the "northwest suburbs." Economically, its suspicion of government and trade restrictions has declined, as Motorola has become the victim of overseas competition, which has caused job upheaval in Schaumburg. Historically, this area was one of the most Republican places in the nation. In the past decade, like other suburban Chicago areas, it moved toward the Democrats, and if the 8th is still one of Illinois's most Republican districts, as measured by its support of George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004, it is far less Republican than districts with similar demographics in Texas or Georgia.

The new congresswoman from the 8th District is Melissa Bean, who on her second attempt defeated Phil Crane, one of only two Republican incumbents defeated in 2004. Bean grew up in Park Ridge, where her father owned a company that manufactured conveyor belts. She attended a local community college, then worked from home as a business consultant in technology sales, training executives at Motorola and other companies how to develop marketing and sales campaigns. She served on the local PTA and volunteered for Crane's Democratic challenger in 2000; two years later, she ran for the seat herself. When Bean challenged Crane in 2002, she got little assistance from national Democrats. But she held him to 57%, the second-lowest performance of his long career, and never stopped campaigning. In 2004, her energetic campaign offered a vivid contrast to Crane's sluggish and late-starting effort. Downplaying her party identification and keeping her distance from Democratic leaders, she handed voters jelly beans to help them remember her name, framed her candidacy as "a fresh start," and consistently talked about the need for a vigorous new voice. In this Republican district, she sharply attacked Crane for having lost touch back home and showing little influence in Washington; her attacks were directed at Crane rather than the Republican majority.

Crane was the senior Republican in the House, first elected in November 1969 to succeed Donald Rumsfeld, who resigned to become director of the antipoverty program in the Nixon administration. In 1980 he ran for president, hoping, as the truer libertarian, to cut in on the elderly Ronald Reagan's support and then take it over when the Reagan candidacy faded. But his strategy failed and through the 1980s he seemed embittered and unfocused; he was not part of the young conservative movement in the House led by Jack Kemp, Newt Gingrich and Trent Lott. He was challenged in the Republican primary in 1994 by Peter Fitzgerald, later U.S. senator, and beat him by only 40%-33%. As Trade Subcommittee chairman, he supported NAFTA, GATT, fast track, and normal trade relations with China. But when the chairmanship of the full Ways and Means Committee came open after the 2000 election, Crane was passed over by the Republican Steering Committee. After Bean's strong performance in 2002, Speaker Dennis Hastert and other Republicans urged Crane to do more constituency work. "A lot of people are worried that the November surprise could be Phil Crane," Ray LaHood told The Hill in June 2004.

Bean's energetic campaign also benefited from dissatisfaction with the scandal-ridden Illinois Republican party and from the unpopularity of Republican Senate nominee Alan Keyes. She supported the war in Iraq, opposed the Bush tax cuts and favored abortion rights. Crane tried to depict Bean as an inexperienced newcomer who would be unable to deliver federal dollars for the district: but this is not a district with visible infusions of federal money. In September, Crane took a hit when the public radio program "Marketplace" reported that he was among Congress's most frequent travelers; he defended his trips as necessary to his committee work. But his critics noted the lobbyist-paid golf fees and spa treatments for his wife. "The least that he could do is bring back more to the district than a tan," Bean joked, as her campaign flooded the district with comic mailings featuring computer-generated pictures of the incumbent vacationing in exotic locales.

In October, the Chicago Tribune, historically Republican and still less liberal than most other big metro area newspapers, endorsed Bean. Crane "has used his seat in Congress as a cozy sinecure." Bean "will, unlike Crane, pay close attention to the folks back home." Crane complained, "I have been busting my hump for about five straight weeks" in the campaign. But that wasn't enough. Bean won 52%-48%. She won 56%-44% on her home turf of Cook County, won 50.3%-49.7% in Lake County and trailed 49%-51% in McHenry County, running in each case well ahead of usual Democratic percentages, though behind Senator Barack Obama. Crane was an unusually bitter loser, refusing to speak to Bean or to arrange for the usually routine post-election transfer of district cases and other office files. Bean immediately became a top Republican target for 2006; the list of possible candidates for a seat that had been occupied for more than three decades was lengthy. But Bean will have the advantages of incumbency and constituency service, and her showing and Obama's confirm that it is no longer impossible for Democrats to win in this historically Republican territory.

Committees

• Financial Services (30th of 32 D): Capital Markets, Insurance & Government Sponsored Enterprises; Domestic and International Monetary Policy, Trade & Technology.
• Small Business (14th of 15 D): Tax, Finance & Exports; Workforce, Empowerment & Government Programs.

Election Results (More Info)
	Candidate	Total Votes	Percent	Expenditures
2004 general	Melissa Bean (D)	139,792	52%	$1,586,829
	Phil Crane (R)	130,601	48%	$1,618,074
2004 primary	Melissa Bean (D)	26,740	78%
	William Scheurer (D)	7,518	22%
2002 general	Phil Crane (R)	95,275	57%	$834,585
	Melissa Bean (D)	70,626	43%	$320,956

2004 Presidential Vote Bush (R) 153,245 (56%) Kerry (D) 121,710 (44%)

2000 Presidential Vote Bush (R) 131,967 (56%) Gore (D) 98,664 (42%)

For 1992 and 1996 presidential results in the Eighth District, please see the Almanac 2000 online. Please note that these older returns reflect district lines as they existed prior to 2002 redistricting.

• Cook Partisan Voting Index: R + 5
• District Size: 646 square miles
• Population in 2000: 653,647; 96.1% urban; 3.9% rural
• Median Household Income: $62,762; 4.4% are below the poverty line
• Occupation: 21.8% blue collar; 67.3% white collar; 10.9% gray collar; 10.6% military veterans
• Race/Ethnic Origin: 78.8% White, 3.2% Black, 5.6% Asian, 0.1% Amer. Indian, 0.0% Hawaiian, 1.2% Two+ races, 0.1% Other, 10.8% Hispanic origin
• Ancestry: 19.5% German, 11.0% Irish, 8.3% Polish
• Click here for statewide demographic data.