Saturday marked a special election for the Illinois 14th district, a heavily Republican district that had been held by Denny Hastert before he resigned last year. Jim Oberweis, the wealthy CEO of the successful Oberwiess Dairy ran as the GOP candidate opposite Bill Foster, a former physicist at Fermilab.
Foster ran on an anti-Iraq war platform, unabashadly opposed telecom immunity, an immigration reform plan that includes a path for citizenship, and a health care plan that would provide insurance to all Americans. Barack Obama cut a commercial which was backed by a large ad buy endorsing Foster, and encouraging citizens to cast their votes for him.
The GOP tried all their old tricks, thinking they could scare voters away from Foster because of his stands on all the issues I mentioned above. What happened?
In a district Denny Hastert won with 60% in 2006, and George Bush won with 55% in 2004, Democrat Bill Foster won 53-47.
I believe that not only does this show the huge impact Obama could have throughout the ticket in 2008 (as a Hillary endorsement would not play nearly as well in this district) it should show Democrats that the public is sick and tired of the same old line from the Republican party. Grow a pair, not unlike the
shape of the 14th district and oppose this administration.
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