14th District race may not be GOP routEric Zorn
Feb. 14, 2008*snip*
Now the special election will be March 8, and Hastert's chosen Republican successor, dairy magnate Jim Oberweis, will get to face a Democrat who's making his first bid for public office.
But here's where the plan might go awry:
The Democrat, Bill Foster of Geneva, is a get-out-the-vote geek. He's a knock-on-doors nerd who wrote the software program credited with propelling Democratic challenger Patrick Murphy to a narrow victory in 2006 over incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick in a suburban Philadelphia district.
*snip*
"He helped us crack the code and figure out where we needed to go and how to do it really efficiently," Binns said. "It was brilliant. We were able to knock on 140,000 doors on Election Day, which was a big part of why we won (by just 1,518 votes)."
*snip*
"A lot of candidates just sort of close their eyes and trust their pollsters, and I'm not one of them," he said. "This election will be won on the ground."
For the complete column:
http://blogs.chicagotribune.com/news_columnists_ezorn/2008/02/14th-district-r.html#more