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14th District roundup

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* It’s looking more and more like Democrat John Laesch can’t catch up to Bill Foster…

Complete final counts were not available Tuesday — the last day for absentee and provisional votes to be counted — to officially decide the primary election in the 14th Congressional District.

It appears the small number of both kinds of votes is unlikely to change the outcome of the election, but Democrat John Laesch is waiting until every vote is counted.

Laesch trailed Democratic rival Bill Foster by 355 votes after the ballots were counted in the Feb. 5 primary. […]

If Kane County is any indication, the numbers might not change enough to offset the 355-vote margin between Laesch and Foster.

Final tallies in Kane County showed 13,491 votes for Laesch — 11 more than on Feb. 5 — and 15,971 for Foster — 18 more than on election day.

* Meanwhile, Foster continued his attempt to make Iraq the focus of next month’s special election against Jim Oberweis…

As Republican presidential frontrunner John McCain arrived in the area for a Jim Oberweis fundraiser, Foster and about a dozen of his supporters braved subzero wind chills outside an Oberweis-McCain press briefing to denounce their view on Iraq.

Foster is already running ads blasting Oberweis’ support of the president’s Iraq policy, and Oberweis has fought back, claiming that Foster is essentially advocating surrender.

* As noted above, John McCain was in town yesterday and raised some big bucks for Oberweis…

Republican presidential frontrunner John McCain stopped in Sugar Grove tonight to raise more than $250,000 for congressional candidate Jim Oberweis—but it was Oberweis who used the occasion to reassure conservative voters that the Arizona senator was on their side.

* More…

Oberweis’ fundraiser, held at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove, commanded $1,000 a plate to $2,300, the maximum allowable donation to a candidate for federal office, for a picture with McCain. Oberweis spokesman Bill Pascoe said that by early this morning, the fundraising effort had exceeded the goal set for it.

The final tally, Pascoe said, was 151 paying customers, bringing in a grand total of $257,000.

posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Feb 21, 08 @ 9:18 am

Comments

If Bush had been this decent to Obie, perhaps Obama would have actually had to campaign instead of biuilding his fame and cult following. To be fair, I wouldn’t want to be around The Crazy Milkman either. I am surprised he didn’t accuse McCain of not being conservative enough

Comment by Wumpus Thursday, Feb 21, 08 @ 9:28 am
Geez, looks like he’s finally gonna be successful in buying himself a political office. Maybe soon we’ll see what his positions actually are.

Comment by Snidely Whiplash Thursday, Feb 21, 08 @ 9:28 am
Was Hastert there or mentioned, I wonder? He had harsh words for McCain before the primary.

Comment by wordslinger Thursday, Feb 21, 08 @ 9:46 am
The real interesting part of this is the Lauzen/Obwerweis connection. The Dems had almost as many votes in the primary as the Repubs. Making for a close race. To date, Lauzen has not endorsed Oberweis, but is sending out letters that are, let’s say, questionable, to be charitable.

What the Lauzen supporters do in the special election or the general afterwards will be interesting and what impact this will have on Lauzen’s future will also be interesting.

Comment by Trafficmatt Thursday, Feb 21, 08 @ 9:50 am
Good point, Wumpus. Bush got such a burr in his saddle over Obie’s immigration ideas/stances that he torpedoed his 2004 bid. The White House openly bemoaned and tore Obie apart. While I think Jack Ryan was the overall better candidate - and I voted for him - Obie could have challenged Obama enough to have made him work and not be crowned by the media. Instead, we had Alan Keyes. It’s funny how things work themselves out.

Comment by Team Sleep Thursday, Feb 21, 08 @ 11:25 am
From what I hear, Laesch isn’t helping Foster, he and his people are being a sore losers.

Comment by BlueGirl Thursday, Feb 21, 08 @ 11:48 am
“Foster and about a dozen of his supporters braved subzero wind chills outside an Oberweis-McCain press briefing to denounce their view on Iraq.”

Wow…that’s just plain dumb. Oberweis has never been known as the more mature and dignified candidate in the race, and after the ugly primary he just had with Lauzen, Foster may have been able to present himself as the more serious and thoughful candidate. I’m not sure if heckling like a college student is particularly helpful.

Comment by grand old partisan Thursday, Feb 21, 08 @ 11:59 am
TMatt-

Add to this, Laesch’s supporters are by and large not overly enamored of Foster, either. The “spite” vote, where voters cross party lines to spite the winner of their own party’s primary, will probably be small, and will likely even out, all things considered. The big factor on the 8th is the “stay at homes” in either party as well as which way the independents will swing.

I will admit, I was impressed that Oberweis could mobilize enough voters to give an extremely comfortable margin over the popular-in-some-circles Lauzen in the reg and gen primaries. I am also impressed with Foster’s scientific, targeted methodology that apparently was a factor in the Murphy race in PA.

Comment by Six Degrees of Separation Thursday, Feb 21, 08 @ 12:02 pm
“I am also impressed with Foster’s scientific, targeted methodology that apparently was a factor in the Murphy race in PA.”

Apparently, his “scientific targeted methodolgy” failed the general primary test.

Comment by True Observer Thursday, Feb 21, 08 @ 12:28 pm
Last time I checked, it succeeded by 300 or so votes. Not bad for a guy nobody knew vs. a guy who ran before.

Comment by Six Degrees of Separation Thursday, Feb 21, 08 @ 1:01 pm
Winning the Special primary by 4,519 votes and the general primary by 355 votes shoots a big hole in whatever theory you use.

Comment by True Observer Thursday, Feb 21, 08 @ 1:52 pm
Let’s see. Hastert hates McCain, but supposedly like Oberweis now. But Hastert used to dislike Oberweis too.

The guy Hastert hates comes into say Oberweis is the guy to replace Hastert. So Hastert and McCain agree, but Hastert still hates him.

I’m not sure if this is unity or just another GOP-led confusing mess.

Comment by confusing Thursday, Feb 21, 08 @ 1:54 pm
Six Degrees,

Great points. The points that you raise lead to the point that ANYTHING can happen, and it pretty much is going to come down to voter turnout. Who’s candidates are more energized to come out in the cold on a Saturday to vote?

I think any pollster who is trying to predict the outcome on this vote on the 8th better have one or two bottles of whiskey handy.

Comment by Trafficmatt Thursday, Feb 21, 08 @ 2:02 pm
TO-

Joe Serra wasn’t running in the Special. Doesn’t explain all the gap, but a lot of it.

Comment by Six Degrees of Separation Thursday, Feb 21, 08 @ 6:41 pm
TO-

You may be right about one thing. If a scientist uses a brilliant methodology to help a candidate in PA win a squeaker, he is a brilliant consultant. If he uses the same methodology to help himself win a squeaker, he is a geeky, self-obsessed Mad Scientist.

Comment by Six Degrees of Separation Thursday, Feb 21, 08 @ 6:45 pm
Trafficmatt-

With the $1 million this special election cost, if Hastert timed his resignation to favor a Republican to get the vacant seat, it would seem the party machinery (or what’s left of it in IL) would be doing a nuclear GOTV effort, in addition to the candidate’s efforts who is a self-funder with gobs of ca$h to burn. Not sure if the DNCC is going to put as much effort in a district that leans R and has a self funder running.

Still, it’s definitely within the realm of possibility to go either way.

Comment by Six Degrees of Separation Thursday, Feb 21, 08 @ 7:03 pm
Laesch has really disapointed many people. He has no chance of overcoming the numbers he needs to pick up and seems to be trying to hurt a candidate, I did not vote for, but who won fair and square.

Comment by Susanne Thursday, Feb 21, 08 @ 10:02 pm
Regardless of who previously disliked who, McCain mentioned Oberweis in passing but made a big deal of praising Hastert (who was there last night.) When McCain was done with his speech, he walked into the audience to shake hands. Oberweis just walked away from the podium and didn’t even speak.

Comment by Silent Majority Thursday, Feb 21, 08 @ 10:50 pm