Mar
9
Republicans lose Hastert’s seat
March 9, 2008 |
Former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert stepped down earlier this year, and yesterday a special election was held to fill his seat. The result: not very good.
In a stunning upset Saturday that could be a sign of trouble for Republicans this fall, a little-known Democratic physicist won the special election for a far west suburban congressional seat long held by former GOP House Speaker Dennis Hastert.
Rookie candidate Bill Foster scored a comfortable victory over Republican dairyman Jim Oberweis, who lost his fourth high-profile contest in six years, after an expensive and highly negative contest.
Foster had 53 percent to Oberweis’ 47 percent with all of the unofficial vote counted.
Illinois has of course been trending Democrat for years, and along with New York and California, you begin to wonder if there are any Republicans left in the state.
Again, I am left with mixed emotions. Obviously I do not want to see the Democrats further entrenched in power, but I also can’t help but thinking, “you reap what you sow.” Hastert is as responsible - if not more so - as anyone for the wayward drift of the GOP. That his seat flips after his retirement is a fitting farewell.
Update: I had to include this job from Instapundit:
This should be a wake-up call to the GOP delegation, but they’ve hit the snooze bar so many times that I doubt it will do much good.
Comments
4 Comments so far
Oh there are still plenty of Republicans in the Land of Lincoln, although one would never know it from the inept Illinois Gop. This was a very disheartening loss. About 73,000 voters voted in the Republican primary, many more than voted in the hotly contested Democrat primary. Oberweis came out on top with approximately the same number of votes he received in the special election. His opponent, State Senator Chris Lauzen, a movement conservative, refused to endorse Oberweis, and his voters, who have supported him for years in his state senate district, often against the Republican establishment, stayed home. This was a totally unnecessary loss caused: 1. By the Gop establishment foisting a candidate, Oberweis, on the district who has a perfect streak of losing elections, broken only by his primary victory; and 2. The childish behavior of Chris Lauzen in allowing his personal pique to override any concern for keeping the seat in Republican hands.
What you’re describing in Illinois is playing out all over the country. The GOP is putting out candidates that much of the base finds less than acceptable, and then that in turn leads to a lot of people staying at home. Whether or not the stay-at-homers are being principled or childish - probably a little bit of both depending on the circumstances - it nonetheless does not bode well for the Republican party.
It sounds like Oberweis is already set to be the nominee for the November election as well. That sounds disastrous from what I hear about him.
Gotta go with Donald on this one, Lauzen was being childish.
But, “stunning upset”? I wasn’t stunned.
There are many Republicans in Illinois, but not so many among the leadership of the party.
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