Chicago is My Home

14
Mar

U.S. Rep. Dennis Hastert Replaced By Chicago Fermi Scientist Bill Foster

Author: Adam Fendelman, Category: Politics

Technophiles and Democrats everywhere lauded this week’s victory when affluent scientist and businessman Bill Foster trumped the try by wealthy Republican Jim Oberweis to capture Dennis Hastert’s Republican seat as speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. Hastert also represents the 14th Congressional district in Illinois.

Illinois kept its pride, too, in the selection of Foster: At 52, Foster worked for 22 years at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Chicago suburb of Batavia, Ill.

While Democratic Congressman Chris Van Hollen went on record to foretell a “political shockwave” resulting from the Democratic triumph, Republicans were swift in deemphasizing its implication. Foster just barely trounced Oberweis by securing 53 percent of the approximately 100,000 votes cast in the election.

“The people of Illinois have sent an unmistakable message that they’re tired of business as usual in Washington,” U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama said on March 8 in a prepared statement.

By Adam Fendelman