So right now former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert is giving his farewell speech on the House floor. He has served the 14th district in Illinois since 1987… I was four. So far the speech is quite nice and reminiscent.

As I went through grade school and high school I lived with his politics seeping through so many people in my home town. That’s why I am excited about the prospect of change coming for this district.

While Hastert certainly provided some great things for the district I believe that a fresh face will be sign of relief for the area. This is the district itself, far western suburbs and a lot of rural voters. I grew up near that dot that is Dixon, Ronald Reagan country. In fact, just to give you an idea of the area, a high school teacher of mine said that Reagan was one of the top three greatest presidents ever. I am assuming or at least hoping the other two where Washington and Lincoln with Jefferson and FDR not too far behind.

With Hastert deciding to not make another go at it, we find ourselves with over a half dozen candidates vying to be the next Congressional Representative from the 14th district.

In 2004 George Bush beat John Kerry 56-44. But like much of the country it is becoming clear that Republicans do not want to get out of Iraq while the majority of the country does. This creates an opportunity for a quality Democrat to take advantage of an opening.

So let’s start with the two Republicans who are facing off. The first is dairy and ice cream mogul Jim Oberwies. He has a good deal of name recognition around the state because of Oberwies Ice Cream and the fact that he has run for statewide office multiple times. He has said that he will self finance this run for Congress, which mean millions of his own dollars will be going towards mailings and television advertisements.

State Senator Chris Lauzen is running a hard charging campaign to succeed Hastert. Lauzen has also done some self financing and gaining the support of local activists. But this early the campaign is starting to go negative between the two.

The primary has already begun to turn negative, fueled by a local controversy. Dennis Wiggins temporarily stepped down as Kane County Republican chairman after he signed up with Lauzen’s campaign as a paid consultant, opening him up to conflict-of-interest charges.

Oberweis’ campaign had complained about the connection.

“Chris Lauzen’s decision to buy the support of a county chairman by putting him on the Lauzen campaign payroll was wrong,” Oberweis spokesman Bill Pascoe said in a statement. “He should step down, and step down now.”

Lauzen, in turn, accused Oberweis of engaging in negative campaigning and called it a sign of desperation.

This could get quite interesting. If it goes negative enough it may turn voters off to both of them and onto the Democratic candidate. But that is no certainty and its not known who will be the nominee either.

John Laesch ran against Hastert in 2006, he under performed what Kerry pulled in the district losing to Hastert nearly 60-40. As you can see when it comes to the Presidential election, the district is not that red. Laesch believes that he deserves another shot and is still garnering activist support in the district.

But he will have a difficult time matching the campaign of Bill Foster, a scientist and businessman in the district. Foster is a millionaire and is also dedicated to spending a substantial amount of his own money on the race. Foster has announced the endorsements of 22 Nobel Prize winners, Congressman Phil Hare, State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, State Comptroller Dan Hynes as well as Dixon Mayor Jim Burke. With these kinds of endorsements comes money and more importantly ground support. I see these two factors pushing Foster over Laesch in an eventual battle between Foster and Oberwies.

It all just depends upon the day that Hastert decides is his last day and when the special election will be. Should be a great race to follow.

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