Richard Tafoya
Mar 9th, 2008, 12:13 AM
Washington Post:
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/thefix/2008/03/house_democrats_score_special.html
Physicist Bill Foster (D) defeated dairy magnate Jim Oberweis (R) in the Illinois special election to replace former House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R), a win that reinforces the perils facing House Republicans at the ballot box this fall.
With 99 percent of precincts reporting, Foster had 52.5 percent of the vote to Oberweis's 47.5 percent. That result was amazing given the 14th District's clear Republican lean. President Bush won the district, which spans into the far western suburbs of Chicago, with 55 percent in 2004 and 54 percent in 2000. Hastert won reelection easily for more than two decades.
Rep. Chris Van Hollen (Md.), chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, was quick to cast the race as a national barometer. Foster's victory is "a stunning rejection of the Bush administration, its Republican allies, and presidential nominee John McCain," he said.
...
The defeat -- whether or not there are national implications -- is a major setback for the NRCC and House Republicans. The NRCC spent nearly $1.3 million defending the seat, a significant percentage of the $6.4 million the committee showed on hand at the end of January. That is a major investment of limited resources -- only to come up empty.
House Republicans, already dispirited by the loss of their majority in the 2006 election and more than two dozen retirements within their ranks since then, will likely take this defeat hard. Watch to see whether a rash of retirements breaks out over the coming weeks as vulnerable members take the Illinois special election as a sign of things to come in the fall.
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/thefix/2008/03/house_democrats_score_special.html
Physicist Bill Foster (D) defeated dairy magnate Jim Oberweis (R) in the Illinois special election to replace former House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R), a win that reinforces the perils facing House Republicans at the ballot box this fall.
With 99 percent of precincts reporting, Foster had 52.5 percent of the vote to Oberweis's 47.5 percent. That result was amazing given the 14th District's clear Republican lean. President Bush won the district, which spans into the far western suburbs of Chicago, with 55 percent in 2004 and 54 percent in 2000. Hastert won reelection easily for more than two decades.
Rep. Chris Van Hollen (Md.), chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, was quick to cast the race as a national barometer. Foster's victory is "a stunning rejection of the Bush administration, its Republican allies, and presidential nominee John McCain," he said.
...
The defeat -- whether or not there are national implications -- is a major setback for the NRCC and House Republicans. The NRCC spent nearly $1.3 million defending the seat, a significant percentage of the $6.4 million the committee showed on hand at the end of January. That is a major investment of limited resources -- only to come up empty.
House Republicans, already dispirited by the loss of their majority in the 2006 election and more than two dozen retirements within their ranks since then, will likely take this defeat hard. Watch to see whether a rash of retirements breaks out over the coming weeks as vulnerable members take the Illinois special election as a sign of things to come in the fall.