Many issues at heart of decisive Foster win

Any election to replace a man who was but two heartbeats from the presidency is bound to generate attention. But when that unique Saturday election takes out Dennis Hastert's chosen replacement and puts a Democrat in the seat for the first time since the mid-1970s, it merely heightens interest in a national election already grabbing more hearts and minds than any in recent memory.

Democrat Bill Foster's rather easy win over Republican Jim Oberweis to fill Hastert's unfinished term clearly involved issues national, regional and local.

Surely, it reflected dismay with the Bush administration policies Oberweis tended to parrot without exception and Foster might have been helped by late assistance from presidential hopeful Barack Obama. Neither Oberweis nor Foster was particularly mainstream on issues during the campaign and neither had the sort of personal charm that helps win elections outright. Thus, this race seems to show the house-cleaning that began in Congress in November 2006 is continuing with voters demanding an end to divisive politics and expecting more than lip service on vexing national questions.

But there's little doubt, either, that the dramatic change also reflects a growing Democratic presence in the suburbs, a presence that in the 14th District was nurtured, expanded and first turned into votes by John Laesch, who ran well against Hastert two years ago and lost a narrow primary race to Foster in February. And voters never care much for a guy who refuses to take "no" for an answer, an answer they've given Oberweis four times now.

Beyond that, many 14th District residents were turned off by Hastert's method of departure, one that cost taxpayers a lot of money in special elections and presumed to set up Oberweis rather than leave an open field.

Many Republicans also weren't particularly happy at the way Hastert, Oberweis and the party treated state Sen. Chris Lauzen, who ran against Oberweis in the primary. Even if they didn't particularly like Lauzen or his politics, they felt the loyal Republican and hard-working representative was treated poorly. It isn't beyond the realm of possibility that at least some of Lauzen's supporters either chose to stay home Saturday or voted Democratic in response.

There's little doubt, either, that many voters were put off by aggressive and nasty ads in this race, many of them belonging to Oberweis. In fact, Foster's greatest appeal might have been his nonconfrontational personality, which provided a nice counterpoint to the nasty partisanship that dulled Hastert's luster as a leader at the end. And while Foster's views were decidedly more liberal than the district has traditionally been, he also said that he would let "what the science" or "what the data" showed drive his thinking.

On Saturday, the data showed him as the big winner -- and a dramatic harbinger of change.