Monday, March 10, 2008

Denny Hastert's seat won by Democrats

Democrats are celebrating the election of a Democrat to replace Denny Hastert, former Speaker of the House. A win is a win, but Democrats should not get too cocky.

I just returned from a long weekend in the 14th Congressional District. I talked to a lot of voters, including many Republicans. I can tell you that Democrat Bill Foster didn't win. What really happened was that Jim Oberweis lost.

Oberweis is a nasty, dishonest millionaire who tries to buy an election every two years and hasn't succeeded yet. Oberweis ran for US Senator in 2002. He had never held any other elected office, but when you are really rich, why not just start at the top. He started a pattern of being aggressive, vicious, dishonest, and doing it with the force of his personal fortune. And that was against his fellow Republicans in the primary. And then losing.

Oberweis refused to give up. He ran for US Senator in 2004 also. He lost to a wife abuser with some twisted sexual ideas in the primary. When his story came out the Republicans imported Alan Keyes from another state to represent them rather than turning to Jim Oberweis.

In 2006 Oberweis ran in the Republican primary for Gov. Illinois had an incumbent Gov. that is considered stupid, corrupt, and ineffective by most of the Democratic voters. And the Gov. is a Democrat! He was so hated it would have been an automatic win except for the fact that the Republicans spent so much time cutting each others throats that the Dem Gov. was re-elected. Oberweis couldn't even win that primary.

After the Republicans lost the House in the 2006 election Hastert couldn't get out fast enough. The 14th has been a Republican district for decades. It is slowly softening, but is still a strong Republican district. It was an automatic win for the Republicans. Except, Oberweis had enough money to run the table. He savaged the Republican opposition. He finally won a primary. He had also been so hateful that many Republican voters just stayed home. Republican voters numbers where at suprising lows. On the other hand Democrats had a real candidate running a real race and that just doesn't normally happen in the 14th. They came out and voted.

Jim Oberweis spent 9 million dollars of his own money in the four races and still couldn't buy an election. He now joins that elite club of Republican millionaires that includes Mitt Romney and Dick DeVos.

Democrat Bill Foster will fill the seat of former Republican Speaker of the House, Denny Hastert, until Jan. of 2009. Many Republicans sent Jim Oberweis a message that they think he is a jerk.

This election was not an indication of how the nation is leaning. It is an indication of the total disarry of the Republican party in Illinois and the ilk that can buy a place on the ballot. If you read anything more into it than that you don't know Jack.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

A win's a win. This will give energy and visability to the district and the power of incumbancy should make a victory in the next election much more likely.