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With how nasty the race for Dennis Hastert's vacant seat has gotten recently, you'd think a couple of high school girls were running the campaigns leading up to tomorrow's special election for Dennis Hastert's seat in Illinois 14th Congressional District.
Both Republican Jim Oberweis and Democrat Bill Foster have campaigned hard for the vacancy, and this week each accused the other of misleading voters. Bill Foster hit the dairy man on his use of actors in a recent campaign ad. "Jim Oberweis admitted to the news media what voters in the 14th district already know well: he has no support for his '"nasty, smug, condescending ... and dishonest' campaign tactics. He also demonstrated how incredibly out of touch he is with real people's concerns," the Foster campaign said in a press release late yesterday. Oberweis responded, saying "Three or four days before the end of the campaign to go out and spend time trying to find people to fit those different categories was a lot more difficult than just finding actors."
But that's not all. A mailer from "Latino Neighbors Against Hate Crimes” claims that “Oberweis wants to scare people, and then turn them against Latino families” and “Since Oberweis started his anti-immigrant and anti-Latino speeches – hate crimes in the United States against Latinos have gone up 35%.” Oberweis wasn't too pleased about that, either. "That makes me mad," he told CBS2. "This is just wrong. I have never had a position or problem with immigration." (You sure about that, Jimbo?)
And while recent polling suggests that the district could go Democratic this time around, Republicans in the 14th are behind Jim Oberweis. "I'm probably going to be leaning toward Mr. Oberweis. He's not the one I would have chosen, but I'm a Republican and that's who the Republican Party and the district has chosen," William Barclay, a Geneva alderman told the Tribune.
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I'm not knocking Bill Foster here. I've got no clue and I'm a Dem, so I'll vote blindly for him, but does anyone else laugh at his commercials that say "Bill Foster is a businessman and scientist." Well now that I know he's a scientist, I realize he's totally qualified.
Or the one where the lady calls in to Foster headquarters 'concerned about all the negative ads by Oberweis against Bill Foster' and the add goes on to say only negative things against Oberweis.
Or the one where the lady calls in to Foster headquarters 'concerned about all the negative ads by Oberweis against Bill Foster' and the add goes on to say only negative things against Oberweis.
Both of these guys make my skin crawl. I'm voting for Kodos.
Kevin, you have been doing better with these political postings in the last couple of days, but where and how does Oberweis accuse Foster of being misleading in this piece? Saying that he had to hire actors because he doesn't have supporters who would reflect his points doesn't amount to an accusation against Foster.
And I think you may have been going for sarcasm there when saying that "republicans in the 14th" support Oberweis and then using a quote that is the very definition of damning with faint praise, but it wasn't clear. When even the TRIBUNE endorses the Dem in that district, it says something.
And, re the previous comments- having a scientist in Congress to explain things like evolution and, you know, gravity could really be a good thing; and I challenge anyone to come up with something good to say about Jim Oberweis, without talking about the milk company he bought.
Rant over!
Chris F: While the press release never used the word misleading, Foster's tone certainly implies that the ad is misleading (as does the disclaimer at the bottom saying that any similarity... is coincidental).
And yes, your sarcasm detector is fully functional today.
Bill Foster looks like a kindly professor.
Unfortunately, I've seen Oberweis run for office a few times now, so he doesn't look like anything other than what he is. Because of him, I only drink soy milk.
It is a strange race the trib endorsed foster and the times endorsed oberwiess, I wish the loser of the Kirk/seals race could just have this seat and then we would at least two decent congressman. Fosters ads are just as silly, I change the channel anytime eithers ads come on. I would like to know the real story behind the you can fix any problem by throwing money at it ad. It sounds a little edited
I see what you were going for Kevin, Oberweis just obviously gets my goat.
fed up- Kevin's link to the Trib's endorsement of Foster explains the ad you're talking about. It's totally out of context- Foster's actually talking about how he'd save tax dollars by revamping some airport laws or something. Oberweis didn't even know what it was about, which to me shows how much of a tool he is- any reasonable person could tell that quote's out of context, and he didn't even bother to ask his campaign ad guy where it was from.
Foster's ads are pretty run of the mill, but at least he does try to point out some positives about himself- I haven't seen a single Oberweis ad that isn't an attack ad. Foster's new Obama endorsement ad was pretty good, too.
I don't live in the 14th, thank god, but I am still interested in the race, because obviously each district matters- do we want another Denny Hastert, or someone with a brain?
I am a Republican and I can't stand this Oberweis guy.
His arrogance, his buy-an-office philosophy, his support for the sprawl-tastic Prairie Porkway, and his lies about his Republican primary opponent Chris Lauzen all combine to make me root against him.