Foster eager to get to work in 14th Congressional District

What's more difficult, finding a subatomic particle or winning a seat as a Democrat in the 14th Congressional District?

Former Fermilab scientist Bill Foster of Geneva couldn't quite answer the question Sunday when he thanked voters for making him the first Democrat in decades to hold that position.

It's "a completely different set of brain cells," said Foster, who once participated in Fermilab's discovery of the so-called "top quark."

By beating Jim Oberweis on Saturday and earning the right to finish Rep. Dennis Hastert's term, Foster did what once might have seemed impossible, winning a district held by one Republican since 1987, when Hastert succeeded another Republican, the late John Grotberg.

Now, Foster will have until November to build a record he can exploit in the general election, when he will face Oberweis once again.

Oberweis, of Sugar Grove, could not be reached Sunday, and campaign spokesman Bill Pascoe said Oberweis was spending the day with his family.

Foster won Saturday's election with 52,010 votes to Oberweis' 46,988. Foster's campaign manager, Thomas Bowen, said the candidate won in Kendall County, typically strongly Republican, and received a bigger-than-expected margin in DeKalb County.

On Sunday, Foster showed up in eateries in a tour that included Batavia, Elgin, Aurora and Dixon.

Like another Democratic candidate, Sen. Barack Obama, who appeared in a commercial supporting him and called to congratulate him Saturday, Foster said voters are anxious for change.

"People want workable solutions. They are tired of . . . ideological bickering," he said at a stop at Paul's Family Restaurant in Elgin.

Foster said he will be a full-time representative in the 14th District, noting that he has sold his business interest and resigned two years ago as a scientist at Fermilab.

"The way you win re-election is to do a darn good job representing every person in the district," he said. "That's our focus."

He said his immediate plans are to set up his district and Washington, D.C., offices, "so that constituents with problems will have a responsive office and one that listens to them when things go wrong.

"There are a very large number of national policy issues that have to be worked on," he added. "I'm a strong proponent of getting universal health care, at least a basic level of health care for every man, woman and child in the United States, and I believe that we should start that by trying as best we can to expand the children's health insurance program."

Foster said he also intends to ask hard questions about exactly what was done to the budgets of Argonne National Laboratory and Fermilab "to see if there is some possibility of getting those mistakes rectified."

Bowen referred to his candidate's victory in the traditionally Republican district as "a political earthquake."

Hastert not only held the seat for 21 years, he was speaker of the House from January 1999 to the end of 2006.

The special election drew nationwide attention to the district, which went heavily for George Bush in both 2000 and 2004.

"We think Senator Obama has long been telling people voters are ready for a real change and a real difference, and I think this is confirmation of it," Bowen said.

Bowen predicted it's a sign of what will happen in the fall.

"Voters are very frustrated and very tired of the fact that their government isn't going out there and fixing the things they want to fix," he said, listing the war in Iraq and health care as two sources of frustration.

"It's an important symbolic victory for Democrats, no doubt about it," said David Wasserman, U.S. House editor for the nonpartisan Cook Political Report newsletter. "Clearly Democrats were more motivated to vote in this election."