Illinois Dems hope to pick up more congressional seats
DENVER — Illinois Democrats have the best seats in the house this week at the Democratic National Convention.
(Sun-Times News Group files)
And they’re hoping to come home and pick up the best seats in the House, boosting the Democratic majority in Congress.
Among candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives who will be showcased here this week: rising Democratic star Bill Foster, a scientist and businessman who shocked the political world in March by winning the Republican seat of former Speaker of the House Denny Hastert from dairy magnate Jim Oberweis. Republicans dismissed Foster’s victory as the result of “Obamamania” in Illinois.
And Barack Obama wasn’t even on the ticket during that special election.
Will Obamamania deliver two to four more Republican congressional seats in Illinois for Democrats in November?
Democrats don’t want to set expectations that high yet. But they say they feel confident about Foster hanging onto Hastert’s seat in his second match-up with Oberweis.
“It turns out my real name isn’t Bill Foster, it’s George William Foster. The difficulty is that if you try running for any office as “George W” anything, you’re in major trouble, so I’m just Bill Foster,” the candidate quipped to enthusiastic Democrats at the Illinois delegation breakfast Tuesday.
Democrats also still feel confident about state Sen. Debbie Halvorson’s chances to take outgoing incumbent Republican Jerry Weller’s far south suburban and Downstate 11th Congressional District seat over concrete company executive Marty Ozinga.
In the north suburbs, Democratic business consultant Dan Seals has a rematch with Rep. Mark Kirk, who he came within six percentage points of upsetting last time in the 10th Congressional District.
Those three races are all rated as toss-ups or “likely Democratic” by Roll Call magazine and the Cook Political Report.
Two more are longer shots for the Democrats but not entirely impossible.
Jill Morganthaler has a more extensive resume than Tammy Duckworth, who came close to taking Henry Hyde’s seat last time. But with $5 million, national attention as an Iraq War vet who lost limbs after having her helicopter shot down, and Rep. Rahm Emanuel leaving no stone unturned to get her elected, Duckworth still couldn’t beat State Rep. Peter Roskam in this still-Republican district.
So how could Morgenthaler, with far less money and attention, hope to beat Roskam? She has a better resume, as an Army colonel. One of the highest-ranking women in Iraq at the time the Abu Ghraib scandal broke, her superiors chose her to be the army’s spokesperson on the issue. She personally lobbied Gen David Petreaus, unsuccessfully, for more funds to train Iraqi women to participate in that country’s armed forces, she said.
In a neighboring west suburban district, Judy Biggert has had little trouble getting re-elected until two years ago, when lawyer Joseph Shanahan, with virtually no budget or campaign, took 44 percent of the vote against her.
That emboldened Democrat Scott Harper, who has a much more active campaign and a bigger budget. But Biggert, awakened by the challenge last time, has revved up her re-election campaign, turning back a primary challenge from builder Sean O’Kane, and has been out-raising Harper.
Democrats have hoped for a long time this economically Republican but socially liberal North Shore district would swing into the Democratic column, and they’re hoping that Obama’s run will help Seals in his second attempt. Last time, Seals was largely on his own. This time, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has listed the race as a top priority. The Republicans are likewise focused on keeping Kirk, a moderate naval intelligence officer, in the seat.
Halvorson was unopposed in the primary but was broadsided by neighboring Democratic Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr., who says she has worked against his vision for a third Chicago-area airport at Peotone. Halvorson’s stepson, an army captain, was seriously injured in Iraq two weeks ago.
Ozinga told state Republicans in Springfield a week ago that, while Democrats thought they had the race locked up, his late entry and out-of-the-gate fund-raising success renders the race a toss-up again.