February 29, 2008
Can Foster Beat Oberweis on Turnout?
With the special election for Dennis Hastert's vacant 14th Congessional District seat coming up next Saturday, the race has heated up. Democrat Bill Foster has hit Jim Oberweis almost daily, pointing out the differences on Social Security, global trade, and the war in Iraq. Oberweis has fought back, calling Foster a liberal and a liar, and charging that he will raise taxes. The close race got even more interesting this week when Foster released recent internal polling indicating that he leads Oberweis in the race. Now Foster is claiming that Oberweis violated the so-called "Millinoare's Law", by failing to disclose that he was about to dump buckets of his own cash into the race.
And while all of that matters to the race, so will turnout. Foster, in his first campaign for political office, is still trying to find his voice on the campaign trail, but doesn't come unprepared. What Foster lacks in experience as a candidate, he makes up for in GOTV experience. Foster worked on Patrick Murphy's challenge to incumbent Republican Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick in suburban Philadelphia. In fact, Foster was the genius behind Murphy's win, engineering a sophisticated get-out-the-vote effort. Foster wrote a software program that some credit with the narrow win in that district. "He helped us crack the code and figure out where we needed to go and how to do it really efficiently," Nat Binns, a spokesman for Murphy's campaign told Eric Zorn. "It was brilliant. We were able to knock on 140,000 doors on Election Day, which was a big part of why we won."
No matter who wins next Saturday, Foster and Oberweis will have a rematch in November. And while the winner will take steps to try to change the political landscape after March 8, it's a given that the loser will try to make up for the mistakes and shortfalls of this race.
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"Millinoare's Law"
Nice.
Good milk from a bad man.
I wonder how much tax money is being wasted having two elections. This is stupid. I dont live in the district but turnout wont be over 25% for the special election what a joke. a huge waste of money
It will cost Kane County alone almost half a million dollars.
Thanks, Denny!
We Republicans are continually let down by the Illinois GOP powerbrokers. They keep serving up jerks as candidates, or fake Republicans that are really Democrats.
With Oberweis, we have an actual Republican but the guy is in the jerk category. It was sadly predictable to see him beat fellow Republican Chris Lauzen in the primary, via unfair mudslinging and outright lies about Lauzen.
Oh, and for you city lovers and sensible urban planners, note that Oberweis is going to push for Dennis Hastert's dopey Prairie Parkway, the expressway through the cornfields that will only aggravate sprawl. Hour-long commutes, anyone? And screw that environment. Oh, and Oberweis will have plenty contracts for his Prairie "Porkway" friends.
Honestly, if there was some crazy assed recall election, and Ryan ran for governor from his jail cell, I'd vote for him. He's personally my favorite Illinois Republican since Abraham Lincoln.
Ward, the Parkway goes, no matter who's in that office. The money is allocated, the only thing holding it up is Springfield not passing a capital bill. Expect a Record of Decision from Federal Highways pretty soon.
Oh, and if you look at Burnham's Plan of Chicago, he anticipated a series of ring roads around Chicago. The Tri-State is one, and another is basically on the same alignment as the Parkway.
That Oberweis is such a douche with those stupid milk commercials. It all taste the same who cares.
I always tell my girlfriend that I prefer to have my milk directly from the tap.
(wink wink nudge nudge)