Don't it make your red district blue....
You know, winning "Dennis Hastert's seat" sounds kinda icky to me...but the Democrats have done it! Yep, Democrats turned a red seat blue...coat tails are flappin' in the breeze and a mile long....
From chicagotribune.com:
"In a stunning upset Saturday that could be a harbinger of trouble for the GOP this fall, a little-known Democratic physicist won the special election for a seat drawn to re-elect former Republican House Speaker Dennis Hastert.
"In a stunning upset Saturday that could be a harbinger of trouble for the GOP this fall, a little-known Democratic physicist won the special election for a seat drawn to re-elect former Republican House Speaker Dennis Hastert.
Bill Foster defeated Republican Jim Oberweis, who lost his fourth high-profile election in six years, following an expensive and highly negative contest.[..]"
A real scientist too!
The 14th Congressional District...Dixon, Illinois is a town in this district.
Ahem...isn't this also the birth place of one Ronald Wilson Reagan?
This win means Foster will serve out the rest of Hastert's term, which will give him an advantage as he faces a rematch with Oberweis in the November general election for a full two years.
Poor Oberweis seems to be the best they can offer...a guy who has now spent nearly $9 million of his own money on six elections the last six years and *still* does not hold elected office.
Obama deserves major credit for Foster's win, he did an endorsement commercial that ran the last three days, and supplied his website and campaign staff to help Foster out.
Superdelegates will look hard at this as they ponder electability.
And mark up one more superdelegate for Obama....
This win is huge because this is a deeply Republican district that hasn't been represented by a Democrat since 1974...right after Watergate.
Hastert's seat was especially vulnerable because he was behind the Mark Foley scandal (knowingly harboring a pedophile in Congress) and because he was a Bush rubber stamp. Yes, I know he wasn't running again, but this is the kind of betrayal of trust and ethics that will create backlash galore for the Republicans.
The GOP spent 20 percent of their resources trying to keep Hastert's seat--$1.2 million, almost a third of the NRCC's cash on hand--and they lost it.
Rightie blogs are kinda quiet about Foster's win...and FOX "News" doesn't want to discuss it either.
Republicans deserve to lose this seat and every seat to come for ravaging this country with hate and useless wars, etc., etc., etc.
So many of us are counting on this being the year that Democrats win the White House, and get wide enough majorities in the House and Senate to actually get stuff done.
Yet, November is still a long way off, and we Democrats have time to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
A hard rain's gonna fall on that Michigan/Florida/superdelegates fiasco.
