Democrats… it’s time to take Dennis Hastert’s old seat!
Illinois will have a special congressional election on March 8th to fill the seat of former Republican Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert.
Illinois’ 14th district is a conservative bastion resting in the North Central heart of Illinois. It’s rural, traditional values Republicans who sent Denny Hastert to Capital Hill. Geographically, the 14th district touches the Chicago Democratic congressional strongholds to the east, and spans the width of the state to the Mississippi River in west. It starts in the outskirts of the Northwest suburbs (a few miles from my old home in Barrington) and is gerrymandered southeast.
This year is about change is Washington, and guess what? A Democrat now leads a Republican in the polls in a Republican stronghold.
Democrat Bill Foster, a scientist, is leading Republican milkman Jim Oberweis in recent polls, but not by much. (Oberweis owns a famous Chicago dairy chain–great ice cream by the way…)
A Global Strategy Group poll found:
Bill Foster: 45
Jim Oberweis: 41
A narrow lead to be sure.
I met Jim Oberweis at a Republican party fund raiser two years ago during his run for the governorship of Illinois. He is indeed a great guy with a great personality, but to put bluntly, he scares me. The man is a rank and file Republican. He holds strict fiscally and socially conservative values that stand in sharp contrast to what I believe. But more certainly, I have never forgiven him for this commercial he aired in his 2002 run for the United States Senate:
Oberweis 2002 Ad.
I was in high school when I watched that commercial, and I remember thinking then as I do now, wow, what a asshole. The reality is, Oberweis is a failure. He ran unsuccessfully for both the governorship of Illinois and the Republican nomination for the United States Senate. (Losing to Jack Ryan who later dropped out when details of his sex life emerged. The Illinois Republican party would later nominate Maryland carpetbagger Alan Keyes to lose to Illinois State Senator Barack Obama).
Bill Foster is the alternative. He stands opposed to the Iraq war, for affordable health care, fiscal responsibility and for border security. He is a political moderate, neither liberal nor conservative, who won’t vote with the rank and file of the Democratic party and only with the interests of Illinois’ 14th district in mind.
Here is his bio and a commercial, check out his website for more info.
Foster for Congress ad.
