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stillnotking · Joined: 18 Dec 2007 Location: Oregon, USA

The IL-14 special election was held today to determine a replacement for Republican Congressman and former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert. Hastert resigned his seat in disgrace last year following his involvement in the Congressional page scandal.

Political junkies were watching the race very closely as a possible preview of November. The district is beet-red, and was held easily by Hastert since 1987. The NRCC spent over $1 million on the attempt to keep Democrat Bill Foster from defeating Republican Jim Oberweis. (And perhaps more tantalizingly for us political junkies: Obama cut an ad for Foster, and McCain campaigned for Oberweis.)

The result? Congratulations, Representative-elect Foster!

Just to rub salt in the GOP wounds tonight, the district includes the city of Dixon -- birthplace of Ronald Reagan. It's a district that voted overwhelmingly for George Bush, twice. Foster won it tonight by six points, 53-47.

A clearly taken aback NRCC released this defensive and borderline-incomprehensible reaction statement:

Ya-ta Boy · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: Established in 1994

Milwaukiedave · Joined: 02 Oct 2004 Location: Goseong

My understanding is there is only 10 months left in the term and that Foster and Oberweis are the respective nominees for their parties in November. Is this correct?

Hater Depot · Joined: 29 Mar 2005

The regular election is in November but I don't think nominations have been decided.

Ya-ta Boy · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: Established in 1994

When a seat in Congress is empty, a special election can be held to fill the seat for the remainder of the term. That is what happened in this case. The same seat will be up again, with all the other seats in the House, this fall in the General Election. Except that this seat will have an incumbent, rather than an open seat.

Milwaukiedave · Joined: 02 Oct 2004 Location: Goseong

Ok, I looked it up. It appears they only held the primary for the special election in Feb. Not sure when the primary for the next cycle is in terms of the nominee. My guess is unless something major happens it will be the same two guys.

Ya-ta Boy · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: Established in 1994

SOME PEOPLE are not paying attention. This was a SPECIAL ELECTION to fill an empty House seat. The Democrats have gained one seat in the House for the rest of this term.

From Wiki: After the resignation of 14th district representative Dennis Hastert (R) on November 26, 2007[1], a special election will fill the vacancy for the remainder of the 110th United States Congress.

Governor of Illinois Rod Blagojevich set the special election date for March 8, 2008. The Democratic and Republican parties held special primary elections on February 5, 2008.

stillnotking · Joined: 18 Dec 2007 Location: Oregon, USA

You are correct, this House seat, along with every other House seat, will be contested in November. I didn't include that because I figured everybody knew it, sorry.

Oberweis is the presumptive GOP nominee but there may be some pressure on him to step aside -- it's extremely unlikely that he would win.

Milwaukiedave · Joined: 02 Oct 2004 Location: Goseong

No, I didn't know, but there was no need to be arrogant about it. Right now I am paying more attention to the presidential race as it is more interesting to me.