Illinois, Super Tuesday Will Be Even Bigger
January 27, 2008
(WASHINGTON POST) — For months, Feb. 5 has been circled on the calendars of political junkies across the country. With 24 states voting for presidential nominees that day, it will be the equivalent of a national primary -- the first such event in recent political history.
While most of the states that rushed to move their presidential votes to early February kept their congressional primaries scheduled later in the year, Illinois decided to hold all of its elections at once -- meaning that not only will native son Barack Obama be on the ballot a week from Tuesday, a host of key congressional primaries will also be decided.
14th District: The resignation of former House speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R) has set off a special election to replace him, a contest that is among the nastiest in the country. In the GOP primary race, dairy magnate Jim Oberweis is bashing state Sen. Chris Lauzen for accepting contributions (later returned) from a company that was sued over a series of sexual harassment claims; Lauzen is pushing back, casting Oberweis's ad as a "cruel, politically motivated lie." Hastert has endorsed Oberweis, but the race is up in the air. Scientist Bill Foster is the likely Democratic nominee. The primary winners will face each other in a special election on March 8.