Dems capture Dennis Hastert's seat

Yes we DID!

Bill Foster successfully captured the Illinois 14th District seat held by former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert today. Foster had announced his candidacy for the seat last May. The flipping of Hastert's seat to the Democratic Party may well be taken as a sign of things to come this fall for Republicans in red or purple at best districts (IL-14 has a PVI of R+5.) It also serves as the first test case for how Obama's message and endorsement may trickle down to the congressional level in November. Granted, Illinois's demographics are shifting and Obama is the hometown senator, but this is a district that Bush won 55-44 in 2004 and Hastert won 60-40 in 2006.

Obama's ad for Foster:



Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who replaced Hastert after the Democratic Tsunami of 2006, commented: "I can appreciate the difficulty of removing Denny Hastert from his seat. It took a cadre of union carpenters to extract him from his office here on Capitol Hill. We had to replace all of the furniture as well; I've never seen so many broken springs and splintered beams. Denny never met a triple cheeseburger that he didn't like!"