-By Warner Todd Huston
14th District voter Steve Youhanaie had a few thoughts on the 14th District race between newbie pol Ethan Hastert, son of former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, and current State Senator Randy Hultgren. Like myself, Mr. Youhanaie is irked by the outsiders that have flooded into the 14th District to shower money and support on Ethan Hastert and Youhanaie wonders why they are doing it when we have a perfectly good candidate in the person of Randy Hultgren? Hultgren is a candidate that has a proven record of electability in the very district in which he’s running. So, Ethan’s support from outside the district is somewhat of a mystery to Mr. Youhanaie:
When I found out that Ethan Hastert would appear on the ballot for the GOP nomination in the14th Congressional District, I thought to myself, “This doesn’t make sense.” Could it be true that people with a lot of money believe that a 31-year-old with no background in the community could move into the district and in less than two years become the Republican nominee for the United States House of Representatives? Additionally, do they honestly believe that this 31-year-old could defeat an incumbent Congressman in a near 50/50 Congressional District just because of a name, a party affiliation, and a few well chosen words?
Defeating an incumbent Congressman like Democrat Bill Foster is no easy task. Especially, when the incumbent has millions of dollars available to define his opponent. Looking at Mr. Hastert’s background it would be child’s play for the incumbent to define Mr. Hastert. It is clear that Hastert cannot show thoughful voters anything in his background that could convince them how he would conduct himself as a Congressman.
Looking closer, can the Hastert’s handlers create something out of nothing? Can they convince voters to vote for him merely because of his name? Establishment, insider Republican voters won’t need any reason to vote for him. Unfortunately for Hastert there are not enough of them to insure a victory. He might get some independent or Republican leaning voters with just his name recognition and the current disdain for incumbent Democrats. Again, this district does not have enough voters in a mid-term election cycle that will put such a candidacy over the top. The truth is, though, that a great preponderance of mid-term voters know the candidates, the party affiliations of the candidates, and the issues.
So, how does Mr. Hastert’s handlers go beyond a name, a party affiliation, and the communication of issue positions? The answer is that they cannot. Mr. Hastert’s candidacy seems to be based on pure cynicism. It is a candidacy that believes that you can put anybody on the ballot with a recognizable name, a particular party affiliation, and strategic verbage, to gain 50%, plus 1 vote. In a general election that may work for a strong Democrat or Republican district candidacy, but not a 50/50 or 55/45 district. Even if the 55% favors the challenger as might be the case in this election. So, why are major DC Republican donors so willing to give massive contributions to the Hastert candidacy? Why go into a district like this, with a candidate such as this? Have the powerbrokers in Washington decided to give Foster a pass? It’s a mystery to me.
Of course, the mystery isn’t really so great. What we have here is the big money from Washington trying to pay back former Speaker Hastert by buying an election for his kid. There’s not much doubt that it could be anything else. That is why I, for one, am supporting Randy Hultgren for the 14th District.
Now, if Mr. Hastert was the only candidate running, well, I’d likely support him. But in the contest between this young man with no track record and no history of involvement in the district and a steady man with a long history of community service like Randy Hultgren, to me the choice is clear that Hultgren is the best vote.
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, RightWingNews.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, TheRealityCheck.org, RedState.com, Human Events Magazine, AmericanDailyReview.com, and the New Media Journal, among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events and is currently the co-host of “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Conservatism” heard on BlogTalkRadio. Warner is also the editor of the Cook County Page for RedCounty.com.
He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of PubliusForum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston
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