Foster hangs onto 14th District Congressional seat
Voters in the 14th Congressional District had a chance Tuesday to reconsider their choice of Democrat Bill Foster to replace Republican juggernaut Dennis Hastert just eight months ago.
By the end of the night, it was clear they have no regrets about that choice.
Unofficial vote totals showed Foster appeared headed for victory with 519 of 573 precincts reporting. Indeed, challenger Jim Oberweis called Foster to concede two hours after the polls closed. Foster was unofficially ahead with 167,334 votes to 124,276 for Oberweis shortly after the concession. That represents a 57 percent to 43 percent margin of victory, even better than the 5 percentage point win with which Foster fended off Oberweis in March.
The Oberweis campaign believed up to three times as many Republicans would turn out Tuesday than the showing they made for the special election. In a district with more registered Republicans, they believed turnout seemed to be the key to victory.
But on an Election Night where Illinois Democrats were fueled by a surging president-elect Barack Obama, only Henry and Bureau counties seemed to prefer Oberweis. The remaining six counties and Aurora all had Foster clearly ahead shortly after the Oberweis concession.
Having lost another race, the question for Oberweis now is what is his political future. The Republican from Sugar Grove released a statement on his Web site hinting this might be the last political campaign for the dairy magnate.
"As a private citizen, I will continue to speak out and advocate for an end to the business-as-usual, special interest-driven system that plagues our political system in Illinois and Washington. We must restore confidence that our government is working for the taxpayers."
That said, Oberweis campaign manager David From said he heard Oberweis tell supporters he has no plans to do anything in politics.
"But never say never," From said.
The win secures a full two-year term for Foster, who was already a feather in the Democratic Party's cap after his first victory over Oberweis.
Foster could not be immediately reached for comment Tuesday night.