Democrats Take Over Hastert’s Seat
In a surprising development, the Democratic candidate for what was once (former Speaker of the House, and Republican) Dennis Hastert’s seat, has defeated his Republican opponent. Physicist Bill Foster (D) defeated dairy magnate Jim Oberweis (R) in the Illinois special election, and did so by quite a comfortable margin. Relatively spoken at least.
With 99 percent of precincts reporting, Foster had 52.5 percent of the vote to Oberweis’s 47.5 percent. That result was amazing given the 14th District’s clear Republican lean. President Bush won the district, which spans into the far western suburbs of Chicago, with 55 percent in 2004 and 54 percent in 2000. Hastert won reelection easily for more than two decades.
Rep. Chris Van Hollen (Md.), chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, was quick to cast the race as a national barometer. Foster’s victory is “a stunning rejection of the Bush administration, its Republican allies, and presidential nominee John McCain,” he said.
House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel (Ill.) called the race “the shot of change heard around the world.”
Color me cynical, but as far as I’m concerned this looks more like a new gang of crooks replacing another gang of crooks, but that as an aside of course.
It is an important development, at least from a partisan perspective: this was a very surprising victory and it could very well be an indicator that Republicans are in trouble nation wide.
On the other hand, it may not mean that much after all. Republicans argue that Oberweis didn’t lose because he’s a Republican but because he’s, well, he’s not very popular:
Republican strategists downplayed the importance of the race, insisting that Oberweis’s past runs for office had badly damaged him in the eyes of voters. Oberweis, who owns a chain of dairies throughout the state, ran unsuccessfully for the Senate in 2002 and 2004, and governor in 2006. His previous primary campaigns were knock down, drag out affairs as was his primary win over state Sen. Chris Lauzen (R) earlier this year — races that left his image among voters seriously tarnished.
In other words, you can believe whatever spin suits you. Usually the truth is somewhere in the middle.
It’s remarkable that the Republican leaders act as if they didn’t have a lot of trust in Oberweis since they spent $1.3 million on defending his seat. That’s a whole lot of money considering that the NRCC had only $6.4 million (cash) on hand at the end of January.
If they thought his image was tarnished, why would they have spent so much money on his campaign? Right.
Please cite any examples for this assertion. Maybe the factthat the Democrat supports Obamama at his site. Foster’s site does spell out his stand on issues.
http://www.foster08.com/2007/12/energy_that_is.html
Or is he just another Obama?
You forgot another element Michael; both McCain and Obama campaigned for their respective candidate in the district. Obama is VERY popular in Illinois, so his clear endorsement of the man may have given him a bump in the polls.
I live in Aurora Illinois. I’m a longtime republican. I can assure you that the democats didn’t beat Oberweis. Oberweis sadly lost this election by being a nasty, meanspirited ogar. Me, along with many replublicans, did not vote for him because of that, and in my case, voted for Foster simply because I couldn’t allow someone with such questionable ethics as Oberweis to represent me.
I don’t know the details about Oberweis, but if some of this is accurate, what a shame that the GOP leaders still didn’t get the message in ‘06, that the voters want more ethical leaders.
Michael- Oberweis was endorsed by Hastert over another GOP candidate that he had butted heads with. Perhaps this was not a good choice by Hastert, because otherwise the seat might have been saved.
BTW, I’m with Rudi —there’s no evidence that Foster is a crook.