Rep. Bill Foster (D)

The congressman from the 14th District is Bill Foster, a Democrat who won a March 2008 special election to succeed Republican House Speaker Dennis Hastert. This contest was an early indicator of the good prospects for Democrats in that election year, when Illinois favorite-son Barack Obama was elected president and the party fattened its majorities in Congress. Foster began life as a Washington insider. His parents met in Washington, D.C., where each worked for a senator. His father became a law professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Foster grew up in Madison, graduated from the university, and went on to get his Ph.D. in physics from Harvard University. Foster was a physicist for 16 years at Fermilab, where he was involved in groundbreaking research in elementary particle physics; he also ran a theater-lighting business with his younger brother that made them both multimillionaires. He had not sought public office before volunteering in 2006 in the congressional campaign of Patrick Murphy, a Pennsylvania Democrat who ousted a Republican incumbent. “He was somebody I believed in, and he had a chance to win,” said Foster, who, given his professional background, did more than stuff envelopes. Foster developed for Murphy a computerized get-out-the-vote system. At age 52, Foster then spent five months working on Murphy’s Capitol Hill staff.

After Hastert resigned the seat in November 2007, Foster paid for a detailed poll that surprisingly revealed that the Republican-leaning district’s voters could be wooed by a centrist Democrat who was “moderately pro-choice” on abortion rights and had a business and science background. “I went into the campaign knowing that it was long odds but that we had a chance to win,” he says. Running in the Democratic primary against the more liberal Jonathan Laesch, who had lost to Hastert 60%-40% in 2006, Foster got a break when popular Illinois Sen. Richard Durbin endorsed him. “That was huge, and it divided the labor vote,” Foster said. He also got backstage support from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, whose chairman, Rep. Christopher Van Hollen of Maryland, quietly steered fundraising help to him. Foster won the primary 50%-43%.

Republicans nominated Jim Oberweis, a successful dairy owner who previously had lost numerous statewide campaigns but who had been endorsed by Hastert against state Sen. Chris Lauzen, an outspoken conservative. In a significant setback, Lauzen refused to endorse Oberweis following their divisive primary. Amid the clutter of negative charges and counter-charges, Foster seemed to get a boost from a 30-second ad by the Obama campaign, which endorsed Foster with Obama’s presidential campaign theme of change. It said: “He’ll focus on changing Washington to get results. I endorse Bill Foster for Congress because he represents the change we need.” The outcome showed that Obama had coattails, according to House Democratic strategists. Foster won 53%-47%. In Kane County, which cast 61% of the vote, he led 54%-46%. Oberweis led in only three outlying rural counties. Each candidate spent more than $3 million, including about $2 million of his own money, with each national party kicking in more than $1 million. Foster and Oberweis faced each other again in November. But the outcome was viewed as a foregone conclusion and received little national attention. With another boost from Obama and with Republicans focused on other House races in Illinois, Foster this time won 58%-42%.

In the House, Foster got a seat on the Financial Services Committee, where he supported the bailout of the financial markets. He also helped to restore $62.5 million in funding for Fermilab. Republicans voiced hope of a competitive challenge in 2010.