What’s Next for John Laesch?

Right now 365 votes separate John Laesch and Bill Foster in the congressional primary in IL-14, a race that pitted a grassroots progressive against a multimillionaire Insider picked for the district by Rahm Emanuel, Steny Hoyer and Inside the Beltway special interests. How could this have happened?

A record number of Illinois Democrats voted yesterday, drawn by the excitement of casting a vote for their popular senator, Barack Obama, or drawn by the excitement of casting a vote for a woman who may well be the first female president, or just drawn by the excitement of casting a vote against the Bush Regime. Some of these voters were barely aware there even was a local congressional contest or only knew about it because one of the candidates, the Blue Dog, had spent $1.4 million of his own– plus another $600,000 he raised– on TV ads and fancy mailers. Against that barrage, the grassroots candidate, our friend John Laesch, has $130,000 and a lot of volunteers. In many parts of the district John won, but not in voter rich Kane County, where the Blue Dog lives.

The local Beacon News is still reporting the race for the Democratic nomination in IL-14 is too close to call. Last time I looked, absentee ballots hadn’t been counted yet. Many people are asking that there be a re-count. There are reports of widespread irregularities in Aurora with the mayor decrying mass incompetence and calling for "broad and swift changes," possibly even abolishing the Election Commission.

We’ve asked John to come back to FDL this afternoon and give us an idea of where we go from here.

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