In an era where polls show voters believe Congress is becoming more and more defined by partisan politics, the race to become the first representative in Illinois’ new 11th Congressional District may be about who is more successful at running away from his or her party identity.

The contest — sure to be one of the top congressional races in the country — pits two people with experience in Congress who both have claims of already representing the district despite both having a degree of carpetbagger status.

Judy Biggert of Hinsdale does not live in the district, nor is she legally required to even if she wins. Bill Foster only recently moved to Naperville as Democrats drew district boundaries that appear to be tailor-made for his candidacy.

Both Aurora and Joliet are typically Democratic strongholds. Naperville is comparatively more conservative, but Foster deftly moved there in hopes of wooing votes from the many Fermilab employees who live there and mark Foster as their former colleague.

Yet even with those advantages, about half of the 11th Congressional District is territory Biggert represents in her current 13th Congressional District seat. Foster represented only a quarter of the new 11th during his time in Congress as the 14th District representative.

Democrats showed recently how serious they are about Foster winning the seat. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee selected Foster as one of five Illinois congressional hopefuls for its “Red-to-Blue” program, essentially guiding the party’s financial supporters to where their campaign contributions will do the most good.

Kent Redfield, a political science professor at the University of Illinois in Springfield, said he expects the money in the race will be huge, particularly for Foster.

“The national Republicans have some hard choices in terms of where they are going to spend their money,” Redfield said. “But the Dems don’t take control of Congress unless they run the table in Illinois. The 11th District is not a slam dunk for them. It’s a competitive race.”

Foster is an attractive candidate for the party, Redfield said, because he has a track record of recruiting big dollars in his favor. Indeed, Foster narrowly outraised Biggert in every quarter in 2011 that he was on the ballot.

Heavy backing from the party sets up a tricky balancing act for Foster as he plans on running on a centrist platform. Yet, in becoming a member of the Red-to-Blue team, Foster echoed comments frequently made by DCCC Chairman Steve Israel during this campaign season about the Republican stance on Medicare.

“Instead of strengthening Medicare, the House budget would end Medicare as we know it, turning the guarantee of retirement security seniors have into a low-value voucher that will shift higher and higher costs to seniors over time,” Foster said in a written statement. “That’s Judy Biggert and the Republicans — balancing the budget on the backs of seniors and middle-class families struggling to pay for college.”

Biggert’s campaign already jumped on that quote as way to paint Foster as a rubber-stamp for the Democratic Party.

“We’ve already seen Congressman Foster echo national Democratic talking points when (two weeks ago) he joined two other candidates’ scare tactics on Medicare in an effort to conceal the fact that Congressman Foster himself voted to cut $500 billion from Medicare (by voting for the Affordable Health Care Act),” said Mike Lukach, Biggert’s campaign manager. “We expect Congressman Foster will dump millions of dollars into the same partisan playbook of negative attacks, which Illinois voters rejected in 2010.”

Redfield said he expects the attacks will start early from both sides and only intensify closer to November.

“You do have new people in this district, so if you don’t define yourself early, your opponent is going to define you,” Redfield said. “Both the stakes involved and the way the campaign is evolving on the national level with high-profile races and independent expenditures indicates this is going to be a very aggressive and very negative campaign season. You’re going to see just a ton of money.”

If so, that would be a more aggressive turn for Foster than seen in campaigns of the past. While that worked in his favor against Jim Oberweis, who was coming off a nasty Republican primary, a nice guy approach couldn’t win him a victory against Randy Hultgren.

This time, Foster set a tone early by largely ignoring his two Democratic opponents through much of the primary. During debates and interviews, Foster took jabs at Biggert for her promotion of the Keystone XL Pipeline while owning TransCanada stock that may benefit from that project, and for voting against an extension of the payroll tax cut.

Part of those attacks involved the subtle turning of a negative into a positive. Instead of being the guy a portion of the new 11th District voted out of office in 2010, Foster came after Biggert on emotional votes that divided the parties and spawned record low approval ratings for Congress — at a time when Foster wasn’t a member of Congress.

Foster’s campaign manager, Patrick Brown, said he doesn’t see it that way. Brown said Foster’s aggressive posture early on is about establishing contrasts for voters between Foster and Biggert.

“Bill has a different profile,” Brown said. “Voters are looking for something different. He’s not another lawyer. He’s not another career politician. Bill has this almost independent streak. He really did spend time thinking about everything he did. He’s not your standard, party-line voter.”

Brown’s comments are part of the road map for the general election, according to a Foster campaign memo. The memo lays out all the areas the Foster camp sees as weak points to go after Biggert: weakening Medicare, only soft support for the Stock Act that curbs insider trading in Washington, D.C., Biggert’s support for the Keystone XL Pipeline, her support of the bank bailouts, and a general painting of Biggert as a Washington insider whose votes and ideology have ruined the economy.

Biggert’s campaign showed a similar race to the middle, though a somewhat less aggressive strategy, in a statement it released a couple weeks ago. The plan is to cast Biggert as the most centrist and independent candidate in the race, and as a representative who already has brought benefits to portions of the new district.

The campaign even made a move to pull the rug out from under Foster’s centrist positioning efforts by pointing to a recent statement fellow Democrat Tammy Duckworth made in an interview with the Daily Herald in February. Duckworth said Biggert is one of the first Republicans she’d reach out to if they both win their contests, and indicated Biggert is a Republican with a willingness to work across the aisle.

But Biggert’s campaign is also planning a strong push to sell voters on what Biggert already has done, Lukach said.

“Voters in this area know that Judy Biggert’s work has never stopped at the old district line,” Lukach said. He pointed to Biggert’s work with Hesed House, a homeless shelter in Aurora, and her efforts to bring the Silver Cross VA outpatient clinic to Joliet as proof.

“Neither of those initiatives was in the old 13th District, and neither was an exclusively Republican project, but Judy knew they were the right thing to do,” Lukach said.

There is at least one more factor that may play a major role in the race, Redfield said. If there’s any state where Barack Obama being at the top of the ballot will make an impact, it’s Illinois. Democratic enthusiasm would translate into a large Democratic turnout, which almost fueled a Biggert loss the last time Obama was on the ballot.

In 2008, she received only about 54 percent of the vote in defeating Democrat Scott Harper. The rematch was not nearly as close in 2010 with Obama off the ballot and the traditional midterm blowback against the party in the White House in full effect. That was the same blowback that helped push Foster out of office.

“Assuming the Republican nominee is Mitt Romney, it all depends on what the enthusiasm level is for him versus Obama,” Redfield said. “If Obama can get the enthusiasm back in terms of the base, and if Romney is trapped in some of the social conservative rhetoric that’s been dominating parts of the Republican presidential campaign so far, that’s going to be helpful to Democrats on the ballot. But if we have $6-per-gallon gas and everyone is talking about the economy going in the wrong direction over the summer, that’s going to generate enthusiasm on the Republican side. If that happens, Obama on the ballot could turn out to be a huge negative for Democrats.”

The Democrats certainly are talking the big talk. Everyone from Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chief Steve Israel on down is predicting gains of as many as five seats in November, a win that would undo the GOP’s landslide of 2010.

But Republicans, while privately conceding some areas of concern, say those hopes are overblown. They’re probably right.

The Republicans already have lost one seat due to the remap (see below), with incumbent Adam Kinzinger taking out incumbent Don Manzullo in last week’s primary. The Dems are a strong favorite in a second district and a mild favorite in a third.

Anything beyond that will require filling a few inside straights — and holding on to retiring Democratic Congressman Jerry Costello’s seat in the Belleville area against a challenge by Jason Plummer, the former GOP nominee for lieutenant governor.

Here’s what I see, district by district:

The single best contest, according to pros on both side of the aisle, is in the new southwest suburban 11th District between incumbent U.S. Rep. Judy Biggert of Hinsdale and former U.S. Rep. Bill Foster of Geneva.

Both are ready to rumble, with big cash already on the way from both sides and the district not strongly tilted in the direction of either. Neither is a particularly strong campaigner, but both have been around a while and know how to tack to the political middle.

Expect to hear lots of talk about how Ms. Biggert voted with GOP leadership and loves the rich, and lots of talk about how Mr. Foster and Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi are too liberal for DuPage County.

Flip a coin. This will be a good, close contest.

Also potentially competitive is the race in the north suburban 10th District, pitting incumbent GOP freshman Robert Dold against the winner of the Democratic primary scrum, businessman Brad Schneider.

Though Mr. Schneider deserves credit for pulling out a win, a long list of bigger-named Dems took a pass on this race, which ought to tell you something. Even worse for him, Mr. Dold finally seems to have gained his footing, with moderate moves on issues such as transportation and the environment that put him in tune with former long-term district predecessors Mark Kirk (now a U.S. senator) and John Edward Porter.

Mr. Dold will have more money and Mr. Schneider will have Barack Obama at the head of the ticket in a slightly Democratic district.

My read: advantage Dold.

Then there’s the the northwest suburban 8th District, where Tammy Duckworth won the Democratic primary and will take on one of the Tea Party’s favorite congressmen, Joe Walsh.

I wrote a few months ago that this could be a Dem blowout, and it still may be.

Ms. Duckworth is a favorite of local and Democratic leaders, so she’ll have all the cash she needs. Her battle with Raja Krishnamoorthi in the primary was relatively tame, so bad blood on the Dem side is limited. And Mr. Walsh still has to both defend his positions and deal with the fallout of continuing squabbles with his ex over child support and other well-publicized matters.

But I see some signs the GOP establishment is rallying to Mr. Walsh’s side. For instance, neighboring Congressman Peter Roskam, R-Wheaton, just raised $100,000 for him, and other well-heeled Republicans say they’re willing to open their wallets if polls this fall show victory is within reach. Beyond that, Mr. Walsh, though not exactly Mr. Sweetness and Light, can be a ferocious campaigner.

My read: strong advantage to Ms. Duckworth. But not quite over.

Also potentially in play is the western Illinois seat now held by GOP incumbent Bobby Schilling. But even if the Dems grab that, it would be a downstate wash if they drop Mr. Costello’s seat.

In the end, as of this reading, the Dems probably will pick up two seats, which means the GOP will be three short of where they were. Not bad, and very hopeful to Ms. Pelosi’s speakership hopes. But something short of a dramatic gain.

Update: We fixed a earlier reference to Jerry Costello.

Follow Greg on Twitter at @GregHinz.

Primary voters have set the stage for Illinois to become a central battleground for control of the U.S. House in the fall, including a major clash in the northwest suburbs that is expected to become one of the top races in the country.

Armed with new district boundaries that Democrats drew to favor their own candidates, party leaders said Wednesday that they hope to pick up two to five seats in Illinois now held by Republicans. Nationally, Democrats need to gain 25 seats to regain control of the House.

“The path to those 25 seats runs right through the state of Illinois. We have some huge pickup opportunities in Illinois,” said Rep. Steve Israel of New York, who heads the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “Illinois is going to be absolutely pivotal to what happens in November.”

With some freshman Republican House members especially targeted for defeat, GOP leaders vowed to put up a strong fight and warned that Democrats “went too far in their political gerrymandering efforts in Illinois and it has come back to haunt them.”

Two years ago, Republicans won a slew of races and gained an 11-8 majority in Illinois’ congressional delegation. The state lost one congressional seat in reapportionment after the census, and the new map could tip the balance back to 12-6 in Democrats’ favor.

A day after Tuesday’s primaries, Israel added five Democratic candidates to the DCCC’s national “Red-to-Blue” program, offering campaign cash and other help to defeat Republicans. Three of the five races are in the Chicago area.

Top among the contests is the anticipated matchup in the 8th Congressional District of freshman Republican Rep. Joe Walsh of McHenry against Democrat Tammy Duckworth, an Iraq War veteran who’s making her second bid for Congress in six years.

The contest symbolizes a national ideological battle between a Democratic White House-supported candidate against a Republican who has been an icon of the tea party movement. The Walsh-Duckworth race is expected to take in cash from across the country, including from third-party independent groups.

“Absolutely at the very top,” Israel said when asked to rate the contest nationally. “I think it’s going to be one of the most important races in the country because you have one of the most glaring contrasts in the country.”

The National Republican Congressional Committee labeled Duckworth a “failed politician” while assessing primary results, similar to Walsh’s statement Tuesday night calling her a Washington insider and failed government bureaucrat.

Walsh has routinely assailed GOP House leadership but said he is anticipating support from the Republican campaign committee.

The 8th District went 51 percent for Republican Mark Kirk in the 2010 U.S. Senate race, but in the last two presidential contests, it voted for 62 percent for Democratic President Barack Obama and 52 percent for Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass.

Walsh noted Duckworth’s backing from Obama political adviser David Axelrod, Mayor Rahm Emanuel and other top Democrats who urged drawing of a district to help elect her, but said he was “going to have the voters on my side.”

“The difference between Duckworth and Walsh on virtually every major issue is going to be very stark and very clear,” he said.

Duckworth said she’s a different candidate from 2006, when she narrowly lost a bid against Republican Rep. Peter Roskam of Wheaton. She said voters “know who I am,” in part through her work in veterans affairs departments at the federal and state levels.

“(Voters) know that I’m about finding practical solutions,” Duckworth said. “I’m not going to Washington to be a poster child for the Democrats. Joe Walsh is the one who said that he went to Washington to be a poster child for the tea party.”

Another high-profile race is in the north suburban 10th District, where freshman Republican Rep. Robert Dold of Kenilworth is facing Democrat Brad Schneider of Deerfield, who defeated the more liberal Ilya Sheyman.

Schneider swiftly moved to attach himself to Obama’s economic agenda while attacking Dold as a tool of wealthy special interests who shares blame for congressional gridlock.

“He’s aligned himself with the Republicans on their intransigence,” Schneider said. “The House of Representatives is trying to block the president’s agenda of moving the country forward every way they can, and Bob Dold has been part of that.”

Dold’s game plan for the fall is shaping up as a mirror opposite, with the Republican portraying himself as the open-minded moderate and Schneider as an inflexible liberal unwilling to veer from party doctrine.

“Right in the middle of the plot graph is where you’re going to find me,” said Dold, who defines himself as a centrist in the mold of Sen. Kirk, the Republican he succeeded last year. “Almost everything we’re doing is in a bipartisan fashion.”

The 10th is one of the most Democratic districts in the country represented by a Republican. It backed Obama with nearly 64 percent of the vote in 2008 and Kerry with nearly 55 percent in 2004. But Kirk got about 55 percent of the vote in the 2010 Senate race.

Democrats also are targeting the new west and southwest suburban 11th District, where former one-term Rep. Bill Foster of Naperville won the Democratic primary and will challenge 13-year Republican Rep. Judy Biggert of Hinsdale.

Biggert’s current district was blown up by Democratic mapmakers, and she opted to run in the new district, whose voters went nearly 58 percent for Obama and nearly 55 percent for Kerry. But in 2010, it went 51 percent for Kirk.

“I feel I’ve represented these people for a long time, and they have responded and I’ve been re-elected,” Biggert said. “My experiences are their experiences. They are mad and they are angry and they are scared.”

Foster tried to draw a contrast with Biggert on Wednesday at a unity breakfast in Joliet sponsored by Will County Democrats.

“We’re going to carry a lot of momentum out of this election into the fall,” Foster said. Voters “have a clear choice in the fall between a scientist and someone who is relatively new to politics” and a “lawyer and a career politician.”

Tribune reporter Joseph Ryan and freelance reporter Alicia Fabbre contributed.

rap30@aol.com

bsecter@tribune.com

kskiba@tribune.com

The $25,000 cable TV buy takes aim at Bill Foster, a former scientist at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory who served one term in Congress before losing two years ago to Rep. Randy Hultgren, R-Winfield.

Mr. Foster has two opponents in the Democratic primary, Aurora attorney Juan Thomas and James Hickey, president of the Orland Park Fire Protection District. But Mr. Gidwitz said, “it’s pretty clear to us” that his group is targeting the likely nominee.

The 30-second ad, called “Signs,” consists of a piano dirge in the background with a voice-over saying: “There were signs that Bill Foster would be bad for Illinois,” citing his votes for health care reform and a bill to make it easier for unions to organize. “How many signs that Bill Foster would be bad for jobs do we really need?” The ad closes with an image of a man in a work shirt taping a sign to a window that reads “Closed — Going out of Business.”

It’s the first of what promises to be a well-financed, bare-knuckled effort to elect fiscal conservatives by the Chicago-based New Prosperity Foundation, a so-called Super PAC that can raise unlimited amounts of money under relaxed federal laws if it remains independent of campaigns it is trying to help in Illinois and other Midwest states. The group is co-chaired by Mr. Gidwitz and Greg Baise, president and CEO of the Illinois Manufacturers’ Association.

“It’s important that people understand just exactly who Bill Foster is,” said Mr. Gidwitz, former CEO of Helene Curtis Industries and managing partner of GCG Partners, a local investment firm.

Local bigwigs such as Equity Group Investments LLC’s Sam Zell and Madison Dearborn Partners LLC’s John Canning Jr. are among several Chicago-area executives who have contributed $25,000 or more to New Prosperity. Mr. Gidwitz said he raised “over six figures” and has “substantially more than that” in pledges to contribute later this year. The New Prosperity Foundation raised more than $205,000 in the last half of 2011 and had almost $133,000 in cash on hand at the beginning of the year, according to a report filed with the Federal Election Commission on Jan. 31.

“It’s interesting that it’s only February and Judy Biggert’s special-interest friends are already going negative,” said Patrick Brown, campaign manager for Mr. Foster. “There’s a long campaign between now and November. Voters here are smart and they will look at all the issues and have a clear choice.”

Link to the Chicago Business article: http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20120131/NEWS02/120139920

Sent on October 5, 2010

Sent on October 12, 2010

Sent on October 17, 2010

Sent on October 21, 2010

Sent on October 23, 2010

Sent on October 26, 2010

Sent on October 26, 2010

To read more click here.