Posted on 04/18/2009 11:23:17 PM PDT by Clintonfatigued
Could another Hastert be in line for a run at the 14th Congressional District seat?
Ethan Hastert, the 31-year-old son of former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, confirmed Friday that he has started meeting local leaders and introducing himself as a potential candidate. He said he has made no decisions yet.
Hastert's father held the far west suburban seat for nearly 21 years, serving as speaker from 1999 to 2007.
Ethan Hastert is an associate at Mayer Brown LLP in Chicago. He worked for more than a year in then-Vice President Dick Cheney's office.
(Excerpt) Read more at suntimes.com ...
Welcome to the end of the Roman Republic, when if you weren’t a member a handful of Patrician families, you weren’t elected.
RINO Governors ALWAYS backfire.
So in other words the next guy knows just how to beat him again.
Oberweis is a rich, flipflopping liberal a$$hole who has never even been able to win an office. Unlike Lauzen, who has been elected since 1992 to the IL State Senate. Oberweis’s disgusting and sleazy conduct during the campaign resulted in his loss in the special (and an even wider loss in the general when he refused to step aside). But, hey, the GOP faction of the Combine is always happy to have a Democrat win in the absence of a corrupt RINO, and they got their wish.
Oh hell, I know that. The 14th District run was what, his third or fourth attempt at national office? He won the nomination because he had money and the name. And that might be enough to get Hastert the younger the nomination, too.
When I saw that (as opposed to strictly a head-to-head matchup, which many believed Oberweis would close), it was astonishing. The GOP managed to put up a guy with toxic personal numbers, probably the most unpopular major GOP candidate in the state of IL. Foster's were high, too, as they would be for a Dem in a GOP district, but they weren't as high as Oberweis's (a similar high-profile comparison would be between Bill Nelson in FL and Katherine Harris. Nelson had about 50% disapprovals, but KH's were something over 60-70% (with literally half the GOP giving her negs), and she predictably lost in a landslide against the most unpopular Senate Dem incumbent up in '06). I knew he was going to lose. If I were the Dems, I'd want this guy nominated for every major office in IL. He's like a goldmine for them.
Who should oppose Rep. Foster? I think that State Sen. J. Bradley Burzynski, of Sycamore, is conservative, and he’s been a state senator since 1993. He won a four-year term in 2008, so he could run for a higher office, in 2010, without leaving his legislative seat.
The congressional races were Oberweis’ third & fourth attempts at national office. He ran for the U.S. Senate in 2002 & ‘04.
“Only retarded Republican mappers give safer seats to powerful rats (see 2002 John Murtha) who they could hurt.”
I'd say that he's becoming the Harold Stassen of Illinois politics except that Stassen did actually win two elective offices.
Oberweis keeps morphing his image every election cycle.
In 2002, Obie ran for the Senate. During the primary, he compared Catholic Bishops to the Taliban. After losing the primary, he apologized to pro-life groups and claimed he was pro-life all the time.
In 2004, he tried running for the Senate again. This time, he supported constitutional bans on abortion and gay marriage. He also ran ads blaming illegals for everything. The media was quick to blast him. He instantly became the darling of the Right for being the only IL candidate to raise the illegal immigration issue. The media did some investigative reporting and found that Oberweis Dairy hired illegals. Thus, Oberweis fell in the polls.
In 2005, Oberweis ran for Kane County GOP Chair. He lost.
In 2006, Oberweis ran for Governor. He portrayed himself as a successful business man and political outsider. He called himself the true conservative and entitled to the nomination. IL GOP primary felt differently and rejected him.
In 2008, Oberweis ran for Hastert’s seat. He got Hastert’s backing. Oberweis spent $3 million of his own money to blast Lauzen. When the primary ended, Oberweis ran out of money and begged the NRCC to spend $2 million in the general election. He lost due to people getting tired of slash and burn campaign style. After losing in Nov 08, he finally got the hint and said he’s done with politics.
If Lauzen doesn’t jump in Burzynski sounds good. It’s inexcusable not to find a strong candidate for that seat.
That settles the old nature vs. nurture debate.
Thanks for clarifying. Their ACU ratings were about the same at the time (around 30) but Murtha’s in sewers as of late and is personally odious.
They are fools, imagine rat mappers hurting themselves to protect a Republican porker.
He won two separate offices, that of County Attorney (at only 23 !) for 8 years, and then the MN Governorship three times (1938, 1940 & 1942) and resigned early in 1943. So that was either 5 or 7 successful general election wins (I don’t know if County Attorney was for 2 or 4 year terms, MN still had 2 year terms for Governor then).
He relocated to Pennsylvania and was still regarded as a fairly serious candidate. He ran for the 1958 Gubernatorial nomination there, placing second (had he gotten the nod, he might very well have won the general as his opponent only lost by less than 2% to George Leader. That would’ve been a first in the 20th century of a man winning the Governorship in two separate states). He was given the 1959 Philadelphia GOP nod for Mayor, but lost 2-to-1. His forays were less serious after that. But I don’t believe Stassen ever flipped his politics to suit an audience (as Oberweis has). Stassen was always a liberal Republican.
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