Political earthquake: Foster to replace Hastert
14TH DISTRICT | Newcomer Foster defeats Oberweis, shifts House seat to Dems
BY ABDON M. PALLASCH AND DAN ROZEK, Chicago Sun-Times, March 9, 2008
In a major blow to the Republican Party, Democratic former physicist Bill Foster on Saturday took the solidly Republican far west suburban seat held for the last 21 years by former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert.
"Back in the laboratory, this is what we would say was a pretty successful experiment," Foster told cheering supporters in Aurora.
"This is a political earthquake -- who would have thought?" U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky said at Foster's victory party. "One would have thought that the DNA of this district is Republican. This means there's not a district in America that's safe for the Republicans."
The victory in the 14th Congressional District means Foster will serve out the remainder of Hastert's term, which ends next January.
Foster and Oberweis will square off again in November for a full two-year term.
Foster, an unusually qualified candidate with a Harvard degree and endorsements from 28 Nobel prize winners, was aided by the unpopularity -- even among some Republicans -- of his controversial opponent, ice cream and financial services guru Jim Oberweis.
"As I said a little over a month ago, first is a lot more fun than second," Oberweis told supporters near St. Charles. "We've come up a little bit short." Then he led supporters in singing "Happy Birthday" to his wife, Julie, who celebrated her 50th birthday Saturday.
Money poured in from around the country on both sides, with $1.5 million spent by each side on increasingly nasty commercials in just the last week.
Study in contrasts
Foster campaigned on a pledge to raise taxes on the top 1 percent to 2 percent of earners. Oberweis translated that in his commercials to Foster planning to raise taxes on the middle class by $3,000 to $8,000 per family.
Foster's ads reminded voters that Oberweis -- who campaigned on a very hard line against illegal immigrants -- was found to have two working for a subcontractor at one of his ice cream shops.
The two candidates offered a study in contrasts. Foster, a newcomer to politics, speaks softly, haltingly and at times awkwardly, promising an end to the Iraq war but calling himself a moderate on illegal immigration.
Oberweis has lost three statewide campaigns for U.S. Senate and governor, taking heat each time for controversial statements and ads, including one in which he hovered in a helicopter above Soldier Field, complaining that 10,000 illegal aliens enter the country every day, enough to fill Soldier Field every week. Experts disputed his numbers.
"When we began this campaign, we knew it might get ugly, it might get personal," Foster said. "I was proud of the way our party conducted its primary."
"Despite spending 20 percent of their cash on hand, the [Republicans were] unable to hold a seat easily won by President Bush and held by Speaker Hastert for 20 years," said Rep. Chris Van Hollen, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Committee.
Van Hollen's Republican counterpart, Rep. Tom Cole, attributed Foster's victory to Sen. Barack Obama's popularity.
Foster noted in his speech that he now becomes one more pledged superdelegate for Obama in the senator's primary race against Hillary Clinton.
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