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Former Speaker of the House Denny "Jabba" Hastert was sick of being an ineffectual player in the Minority, so decided to go back home to Illinois. A special election for his seat was held tonight. Despite scandals surrounding his leadership, Hastert won the district by 20% in '06, and Bush won it by 11% in '04. It shouldn't have been competitive - in a normal year.
The Dems ran a physicist and political neophyte, Bill Foster, against a Republican dairy magnate who had run multiple political campaigns, Jim Oberweis. Foster campaigned heavily against the Iraq war and for civil liberties (i.e. not what conventional wisdom would dictate in a conservative district).
Most of the time, an underdog in an unfavorable environment wins a special election by taking an overconfident party by a surprise in a low turnout affair. This is not what happened. The Dem and GOP Congressional Committees each threw in a million dollars. McCain stumped for Oberweis, and Obama cut an ad for and directed supporters to Foster.
Foster won this thing by 5%. Turnout was around 20-30% (which is pretty shocking for a special election).
The NRCC (the House GOP fundraising apparatus) Chair, Tom Cole, is likely to resign over this situation. He has been badly trailing the Dem counterpart in fundraising, and just blew a ****-ton of resources that he didn't have (20% of the Committee's cash on hand) to defend a Republican stronghold.
The Dems just won decisively in the first major battle of 2008. And Obama can make a compelling argument about his coat-tails.
The Dems ran a physicist and political neophyte, Bill Foster, against a Republican dairy magnate who had run multiple political campaigns, Jim Oberweis. Foster campaigned heavily against the Iraq war and for civil liberties (i.e. not what conventional wisdom would dictate in a conservative district).
Most of the time, an underdog in an unfavorable environment wins a special election by taking an overconfident party by a surprise in a low turnout affair. This is not what happened. The Dem and GOP Congressional Committees each threw in a million dollars. McCain stumped for Oberweis, and Obama cut an ad for and directed supporters to Foster.
Foster won this thing by 5%. Turnout was around 20-30% (which is pretty shocking for a special election).
The NRCC (the House GOP fundraising apparatus) Chair, Tom Cole, is likely to resign over this situation. He has been badly trailing the Dem counterpart in fundraising, and just blew a ****-ton of resources that he didn't have (20% of the Committee's cash on hand) to defend a Republican stronghold.
The Dems just won decisively in the first major battle of 2008. And Obama can make a compelling argument about his coat-tails.
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