While IL-14 Republicans are still awaiting word from Hastert as to whether he will be running again, the Dem field of candidates seems to have solidified. Dem State Rep Linda Chapa LaVia recently announced she will not be running for the seat, leaving the field to 2006 nominee John Laesch, Geneva blue dog Bill Foster, and St. Charles attorney Jotham Stein.
As the Trib story notes, the three Republicans who have formed exploratory committees are hanging back, waiting for an announcement from Hastert which is expected some time this month.
On the Dem side, we at the Laesch camp were pleased to see this blurb about a Kendall County straw poll of Dem primary candidates at the end of a Beacon News article:
John Laesch, who challenged incumbent Rep. Dennis Hastert in the last general election, received 73 percent of the vote.
It was very blurb-ish though, so I called Rennie Bahr, Oswego Township Chairman (who is also running for Oswego 7th Precinct Committeeman – go Rennie!) who was instrumental in conducting the poll to find out more.
Rennie tells me the poll was conducted over three days, August 3rd - 5th at the Kendall County Fair. Rennie stressed that they distributed literature for all three declared candidates in the race and tried their best to avoid influencing anyone participating in the straw poll.
The actual results were:
John Laesch – 73%
Bill Foster – 14%
Jotham Stein – 13%
Rennie also told me that, while he is himself familiar with the fact that John has built a great deal of name recognition in IL-14, he was still "truthfully surprised" at the results being quite that heavily skewed in John’s favor.
Needless to say, we at the Laesch campaign are pleased with the poll results. While only a straw poll, I have to say I believe results so heavily in John’s favor are evidence of the amount of name recognition and grass-roots support John worked to build in the ’06 campaign.
Lisa Bennett
Aka Downtowner
Blogging for the Laesch Campaign
Cross-posted at Fireside 14, Prairie State Blue, Diatribune, MyDD, Open Left