IL-14: Dennis Hastert To Announce Resignation Thursday

by Todd Beeton, Thu Nov 15, 2007 at 12:43:42 AM EST

It feels like deja vu, but this time it looks as though Dennis Hastert will finally make his intention to leave congress early official in a speech on the floor of the House.

From CNN's Political Ticker:

Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert is expected to announce Thursday on the House floor that he is retiring from Congress, a senior aide to the congressman told CNN Wednesday.

The aide said that Hastert will announce his plans to retire tomorrow at 2:30 p.m. in an address on the House floor. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office provided the floor time to the former speaker to address his colleagues.

As for when he will be stepping down, that will remain a mystery.

"His plan is to make his farewell address tomorrow on the House floor," the aide said. "He is then going to decide at some point this year when he will step down."

The aide said the effective date of Hastert's resignation not yet been determined.

He's really milking this for all it's worth.

The practical ramifications of Hastert's resignation are that there will be a special election to replace him. Swing State Project filled us in on how that would work back in October:

Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich has 5 days from Hastert's last day in office to set a date for the special election, which must take place within 115 days.  Depending on the time line of Hastert's decision, we could see a special election coinciding with the state's February 5th primary.

Hastert has a stake in its not being on February 5th, of course, namely that turnout among Democrats will be off the charts that day due to Barack Obama's placement on the ballot. This district may be red (PVI of R+5,) but it is getting bluer and in a perfect storm special election like this, this race has a serious chance of becoming a Dem pick-up and Hastert knows it.

Last year, John Laesch, who is one of several Democrats running for the seat this year, mounted a valiant challenge against Hastert earning 40% of the vote. Without Hastert in the race, the Democrat's share can be expected to rise considerably.




Tags: il-14, dennis hastert (all tags)

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if he's delaying his resignation. (none / 0)

he's surely going to delay it past the primary then don't you think?

otherwise, if he wants to leave, why wait?

-C.


by neutron on Thu Nov 15, 2007 at 03:53:21 AM EST

Re: if he's delaying his resignation. (none / 0)

Illinois a blue state has no business having so many Republicans in the delegation. I hope they redistrict some of these clowns out in 2010.


by Boilermaker on Thu Nov 15, 2007 at 08:40:19 AM EST
[ Parent ]

you would think... (2.00 / 1)

you can break illinois basically into thirds: chicago (and cook county), the collar counties (the 5-6 counties that surround chicago/cook), and downstate.  chicago is reliably blue.  downstate has some strong republican areas and the rest of it is a fervent battleground between republicans and democrats, depending on the race.  it's in the collar counties (which includes a big portion of il-14) that democrats have made the most gains of late.  instead of the people moving into the collars from chicago taking on the political views/party of their adopted home, many are now retaining their old ideological views and partisan leanings.

the other thing to remember about redistricting in illinois is that the state party/government just doesn't care about congress.  the incumbent protection plan produced in 2000 was a natural outgrowth of that attitude...


"Anyone who voted for me or caucused for me has so much more in common with Senator Obama than Senator McCain." -- Hillary Clinton
by bored now on Thu Nov 15, 2007 at 10:27:33 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: IL-14: Dennis Hastert To Announce Resignation (2.00 / 2)

while laesch may be the candidate known to some posters here, he doesn't seem to have the desire to win in 2008.  john just got married, and hasn't really put a lot of work into his campaign.

otoh, the two other candidates in the democratic primary have been working really hard to win.  the front runner, bill foster has a hundred times the amount that laesch has in cash on hand.  jotham stein, with help of former IL-06 candidate christine cegelis, has outraised laesch two to one.

even laesch's ardent supporters have admitted to me that john just doesn't want to spend time raising money.  and it shows:

Name    |    |    NET RECEIPTS    NET DISB    CASH    |    DEBT
FOSTER, G WILLIAM    $540,765    $133,433    $407,331    $200,000
STEIN, JOTHAM SHEPARD    $139,936    $79,007        $60,928        $33,730
LAESCH, JONATHAN J    $70,023        $53,080        $4,938        $0

according to his supporters that i've talked to in the past, laesch's fund-raising strategy is to raise his money online.  but even that hasn't been as successful.  netroots leader dan seals has outraised laesch online by many multiples ($205,493 to $35,412 via actblue) and local netroots favorite mark pera has outraised laesch online by a factor of almost three (S95,677 to $35,412 via actblue).  john's lackadaisical approach to this campaign could be witnessed at this year's yearlykos, held very close to IL-14.  for the record, all three candidates mentioned above (blue dog joe serra did not show up) attended the function that john failed to arrive in time to speak at.

given foster's commitment to put in a million dollars of his own money in both the primary and the general, as well as his ability to mobilize members of congress in support of his candidacy, foster does appear to be the clear front runner in this primary -- and probably our best hope of turning the 14th blue...


"Anyone who voted for me or caucused for me has so much more in common with Senator Obama than Senator McCain." -- Hillary Clinton
by bored now on Thu Nov 15, 2007 at 10:21:20 AM EST


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