Will County Gazette

After losing the llinois House of Representatives District 86 race to State Rep. Larry Walsh, Jr., Jim Lanham is expressing frustration with the influence of money in politics and the lack of informed voting. 

Lawrence Walsh, Jr., a Democrat, received 64.1% of the vote, with 18,381 votes, while Lanham, a Republican, earned 35.9% with 10,303 votes. 

“Democrats don't win elections, they buy them...I was outspent by hundreds of thousands of dollars,” Lanham told Will County Gazette. “They send out a mass text full of bulls#!%. One issue and zero information voters. Rigged game.”

The 86th House District encompasses all or portions of Channahon, Elwood, Joliet, Ingalls Park, Preston Heights, and Rockdale.

Prior to the Nov. 5 election, Lanham criticized incumbent Lawrence Walsh Jr.'s campaign for sending out a survey titled "Illinois Opinions Survey," which Lanham claims contains misleading and factually incorrect statements. 

Lanham pointed to several controversial questions in the survey, including accusing Lanham of defending Kyle Rittenhouse, though it misrepresented key details, stating he supported Rittenhouse's actions in St. Louis when they occurred in Kenosha, Wis. 

Rittenhouse killed two men and shot a third who attacked him while he was providing defense from rioters in Kenosha. He was later acquitted of any charges in that instance. 

Another survey question attacked Lanham’s stance on women's health, claiming he could not be trusted to support women's safety, a point Lanham dismissed by emphasizing that abortion is protected by the Illinois state constitution. 

“They attack all of us Republican candidates like we’re coming after abortion and want women to die,” he previously told Will County Gazette. “But they don’t tell voters that abortion is encoded in Illinois law and it’s part of the state constitution. There’s literally nothing Republicans can do, and I know a lot of Republicans are just saying it is what it is.”

He also refuted accusations that he was backed by pharmaceutical and insurance interests, noting that Walsh himself had received donations from similar organizations.

Lanham expressed frustration with the Walsh campaign's tactics, calling the attacks part of a smear campaign fueled by Walsh’s significant fundraising advantage. Lanham’s campaign focused on concerns over illegal immigration, rising property taxes and public safety. 

Lanham called out local lawmakers for their inaction regarding the housing of multiple convicted child sex offenders at an apartment building in Joliet, which he has dubbed the "Pedophile Palace." 

Walsh, State Rep. Natalie Manley, and State Sen. Meg Cappel were called out by Lanham for failing to address the issue, despite their legislative power to create laws to prevent multiple offenders from living in one location.

Instead, he and others in the community acted to create a pocket park next to the apartment building which will force the child sex offenders to move due to their proximity to a public park.