Union Mobilization Helps Elect Democrat to Hastert’s Former Seat

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2008/03/10/union-mobilization-helps-elect-democrat-to-hasterts-former-seat/

by Seth Michaels, Mar 10, 2008

Illinois union members were crucial in this weekend’s upset victory for Bill Foster in the 14th House District special election.

Foster, a Democrat who received the Illinois AFL-CIO endorsement in his first run for office, won a 53–47 victory over Republican Jim Oberweis on Saturday, winning the seat vacated by former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert.

It’s a big change for this district, which gave Bush 55 percent of its votes in 2004 and re-elected Hastert with more than 60 percent of the vote for two decades.

In fact, Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), the head of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), said two weeks ago the race had great “symbolic importance,” and the NRCC sank $1.2 million—a third of its total bank account—into the race.

Michael Carrigan, president of the Illinois AFL-CIO, says the energetic participation of union members made the difference in sending Foster to Congress.

This is a huge victory for working families in Illinois and across the country. Because of Jim Oberweis’s stand on trade, privatizing Social Security and eliminating employer provided health care, working families of the 14th Congressional District mobilized to ensure the election of Bill Foster to Congress in this special election. In a short time span of three weeks, union volunteers made more than 40,000 live phone calls to union households and hundreds of members volunteered to knock on the doors of union members urging them to vote on March 8 to elect Bill Foster to Congress.

FULL story at link.