THE GOOD: Huge win in Illinois Turns Hastert's Seat Blue

You all must have been getting tired of my writing about the IL-14 special election to replace disgraced Dennis Hastert in Congress. Well, last weekend it all paid off.

The IL-14 Congressional District has been safe Republican for many, many years. On March 8th, this "safe Republican seat" was won by DEMOCRAT Bill Foster. This is a huge blow to the Republican Party and may just mean the downfall of Tom Cole, the Republican in charge of the National Republican Congressional Committee. The NRCC spent about 30% of their total cash on hand on this election. The DCCC spent about 3% of their total cash on hand to back Foster. And now Foster has won 53% to 47%. In a majority Republican district!

Bill Foster isn't just any Democrat. He was a successful businessman, who started a business quite young which now supplies the lighting equipment for most theaters. He then went on to become an eminent physicist at Fermilab. This guy is smart, a great manager and brings an understanding of science to Congress. We need that these days.

Barack Obama took time out from his own busy campaign schedule to campaign for Foster. Some attribute Foster's win to Obama's carefully timed ad. And this may partly be true. But from all I heard Foster's campaign, using software written by Foster himself, was the model of efficiency, covering huge amounts of territory effectively and cheaply. In 2006, John Hall's run for Congress in New York was a model winning campaign that many candidates and campaign managers would do well to emulate. This year Bill Foster adds another model for a winning campaign. To all of you out there who are campaigning, John Hall and Bill Foster can teach you what you need to know to win against all odds.

And what was our pay off from electing Bill Foster? The House Ethics Bill passed this week by one vote. Bill Foster voted for it. Oberweiss and Hastert would not have voted for it. Foster's first act as a Congressman was to help pass this ethics bill. How's that for a quick pay off?

Welcome to Congress, Bill. Congratulations. And to Tom Cole, Dennis Hastert, and Jim Oberweis: it is time you learned your lesson. Corruption and fear mongering do not win in the long term.