in a race like this one, after the financial disclosure reports are put up, there's still things to watch for.  first, there's the personal funds contributions reports like this one (PDF), this one (PDF), this one (PDF), this one (PDF) and this one (PDF) from bill foster.  these are paired with reports of opposition to personal funds like this one and this one from john laesch along with this one, this one and this one from jotham stein.  these are great fun for people running against a self-funder -- well, when the fec has a working majority.  right now, there's not a thing that the fec can do.  you can blame bush, if you want, for that, too.

then there's the 48 hour notice for contributions in excess of $1,000 or more for the 20 days before an election.  these tell us who's still aggressively raising money -- which is more important, since the millionaire's amendment has been tripped in this election (allowing laesch and stein to raise considerably more than $2300 from each contributor).  foster has raised at least $18,900 in new monies that required 48 hour notices.  laesch has raised at least $5,500 in new monies that required 48 hour notices.  and stein has raised at least $4,100 in new monies that required 48 hour notices.

Ok, so, I just got off the phone with Jim Green, campaign manager for Jotham Stein..  And, no, for those of you wondering, I am not switching loyalties, I am still a Laesch supporter.  But I heard the most incredible rumor, and decided I had to follow up on it.

The rumor, in a nutshell, was this: I heard that someone in the Foster campaign had taken recently to drawing faces and scrawling messages on Stein's first mailer, which depicts Stein arms raised, crying out for change, and faxing them over to the Stein campaign.

I figured maybe some quite young Foster volunteer had amused himself by drawing one or two such caricatures and faxing them over.  I know, as does anyone who has worked on a campaign, that you can't control every single last thing your volunteers do.  So I called Green to follow up, but the facts of the case, as he related them, really surprised me.

the most important news at this point is that early voting has begun.  for those who live in illinois' 14th congressional district, the ballot positions for the special primary election are:

Bill Foster
John Laesch
Jotham Stein

ballot positions for the regular primary election are:

John Laesch
Jotham Stein
Bill Foster
Joe Serra

You know, it's very kind of bored now to keep us all in the loop by providing Roundup diaries.  Of particular interest to me is the race in IL-14, so of course when I came back for a pit stop between trips today and saw that he had posted an IL-14 Roundup #3 diary, I took the time to scan it.

Hmmm.  There seems to be very little going on in the Laesch campaign, to hear bored tell it.  Could have sworn I heard about more endorsements recently than those bored now mentions in his coverage of the Laesch campaign, which amounts to this:

john laesch woke up to good news this morning: state senator mike noland has endorsed him.

and this:

booman tribune has an old interview of john laesch that now comes up on google search. his campaign continues its periodic campaign updates here and here. laesch's former blogger also talks about Podunk,IL vs. the New Chicago Machine, the laesch youtube page covers his simmons appearance (broken into multiple videos and quentin young's endorsement.

and...

no, I guess that's about it - all the news bored could find the space or time to bring us about Laesch...

This evening, the Stein Campaign uploaded its "Immigration Reform v. Scientist's National ID Card"
video on You Tube. The video can be seen now at: www.youtube.com/JothamStein4Congress.
By mid-day tomorrow, the video can also be found by searching for "Bill Foster National ID Card"
at www.youtube.com
The video features Jotham Stein's Comprehensive Immigration Reform Plan and
a harsh critique of Foster's National ID Card and the biometrics Foster favors. The video
also includes a mocked-up National ID Card and a screen shot of Foster's website where
he is proud to say that Newt Gingrich would support his National ID Card Plan.
At the Beacon News endorsement session today, Bill Foster reconfirmed that he
favors a National ID Card, which he calls a Worker ID Card, and that the card may
include biometrics. Biometrics means a hand print, eye scan, or even a person's DNA.
Every American with a job would carry one. Foster also discussed his National ID Card
at the October 23, 2007 Candidate's Forum, a partial recording of which is on YouTube.
"We don't need a National Identity Card. I don't want the government prying
into every part of my life or every part of your lives," Stein said. "That's not the America
I want to live in and I absolutely oppose Mr. Foster's National ID Card. We need
Comprehensive Immigration Reform and my Comprehensive Immigration Reform Plan
is on my website for everyone to see." Stein concluded.
For more information on the Jotham Stein for Congress Campaign and Jotham
Stein's Comprehensive Immigration Reform Plan, visit www.votestein.com.

the two primaries in illinois' 14th congressional district are fast approaching.  the biggest piece of news in this race is that the endorsement session for the chicago tribune is available online:

but given the importance of this particular race -- voters will not only be choosing their nominees for the general election in november, but also their nominees for the special election in march to fill the term of retiring dennis hastert -- there's plenty of other news.

repeating the conventional wisdom in the chicagoland area, chicago public radio called scientist bill foster the democratic front runner in it's preview of the upcoming special election in illinois' 14th congressional district.

this would be no surprise to those who are following this race closely.  the story repeats the belief that foster's organizational and financial advantages make him the front runner in this race.  this is true despite the fact that john laesch had run before and is a sentimental favorite, of sorts, to many on the blogs.  shawn campbell's piece talked mainly about the lawsuit that the counties have filed, to cover themselves in the high expectations that the various elections offices may not meet all the mandates they are expected to meet in their conduct of elections (because the special election is only a month away from the special primary).

like il-03, there are new endorsements that have been announced since the first post.  john laesch has gotten the
afl-cio endorsement [PDF], the endorsement of pdachicago, and the endorsement of the western regional council of the united electrical, radio & machine workers of america.

bill foster has increased his growing list of endorsements with endorsements by senator durbin, afscme state council 31, planned parenthood, seiu as well as 22 nobel prize winners and a growing list of voters.

jotham stein got the endorsement of harry katz, dean of cornell university's school of industrial and labor relations, which i failed to mentioned before.