IL-14: Well, If It Means Beating Oberweis...

I've shown little enthusiasm for the Bill Foster-Jim Oberweis special election in IL-14, mainly because I'm not sure what to make of Foster. He appears to have a slight lead, which would flip a Republican seat (Denny Hastert's) and bode well for November, but he's also vowed to join the Blue Dog caucus, which would be frustrating. The better Democrats occasionally seems to me more important than the more.

However, this Jim Oberweis, who is the Tom McClintock of Illinois, having lost just about every statewide election imaginable, is just bad news. He's apparently violated the "millionaire's amendment" to the campaign finance laws, which requires that anyone dumping their own money into a campaign notify the FEC so their opponents' contribution limits can be raised. He's donated himself $640,000 already, and this is not an isolated incident. This is from a DCCC press release:

Jim Oberweis’ Pattern of Violating Federal Election Law and Deceiving Voters

Oberweis was previously fined $21,000 by the FEC for breaking federal election law. The FEC said Oberweis benefited from a television ad he appeared in for the Oberweis Dairy in the 2004 Senate race and that the ad constituted a corporate contribution which is prohibited by federal campaign laws. [Associated Press, 7/27/07]

Oberweis used fake headlines in his 2006 gubernatorial campaign. Oberweis ran two TV ads that use made-up newspaper headlines to attack his opponents integrity. The words were displayed as if they appeared on the front pages of the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Sun-Times, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the State Journal-Register. The St Louis Post-Dispatch ran a story with the headline “Ads for Oberweis using Fake Headlines…” after TV spots he ran attacking is opponent used replicas of real newspapers with fake headlines.” [ St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 3/2/06] [ Chicago Tribune, 3/1/06]

So, if it means beating him, well, yeah, then I'm aboard the Foster train.