Progress Illinois

As Capitol Fax noted yesterday, 14th District GOP congressional candidate has started running a negative TV ad against Rep. Bill Foster, hitting him for supporting the Wall Street bailout package.  Yesterday, Foster hit back with a spot that briefly highlights the new "negative attacks" from Oberweis and whacks him on Social Security. Watch it:

Two Democratic congressional campaigns have new television ads out this week.  First, here's a spot from 18th District candidate Colleen Callahan hitting Republican opponent Aaron Schock over "Notarygate":

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No sooner had I posted the previous item on the Esquire endorsement did I notice a much more relevant media outlet's decision to back Rep. Bill Foster: the Chicago Sun-Times.  From today's editorial:

Our earlier reservations about Foster concerned his style and substance. During a meeting back then with the Chicago Sun-Times Editorial Board, he struck us as unprepared on many issues, and he spoke softly and tentatively, hardly like an obvious leader. The staunchly conservative Oberweis, in contrast, argued his views forcefully, which we had to respect, even if we didn't always agree. We overlooked his contentious edge.

But much has changed in seven months. We have watched Foster in action and taken a better measure. He knows his stuff, though he remains soft-spoken, and has been effective in Washington.

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In its November issue, Esquire magazine backs a candidate in every congressional race nationwide.  Their endorsement of 14th District Rep. Bill Foster, however, is notable for its broad context:

We’re not big on symbolism, but we’ll bow to it here.  Foster defeated Oberweis earlier this year in the special election to replace former Speaker Dennis Hastert, the man who served as valet for the disastrous GOP shift to extremism in the 2000s.  Foster’s reelection in November will make it official: The Bush era is over.  Esquire endorses: Foster

Rep. Bill Foster's reelection campaign released their first TV ad today.  Watch it:

As you may have noticed, the ad represents an interesting shift in messaging from Foster's special election campaign earlier this year.  During that race, his tag line was: "Scientist.  Businessman.  Democrat For Change."  Here's the new line: "Scientist.  Businessman.  Independent Solutions." The word "Democrat" at no point appears on-screen or in the script of the ad. Indeed, the closest they come is when the announcer says Foster "broke with his party to support fiscal responsibility."

I'm curious what readers think about this shift.  Is emphasizing his "indepedent" credentials really necessary for Foster's long-term viability in the 14th District?  What does he lose by dropping the "Democrat" label in his ads?

If we needed any more evidence that the Republicans plan on beating the pro-drilling drum all the way to Election Day, here it is.

The Courier News reported yesterday on the National Republican Congressional Committee's (NRCC) efforts to paint 14th District Rep. Bill Foster as "obstructionist" for voting to adjourn the House for August recess:

"Where's Bill Foster?" read the title of a recent NRCC e-mail blast to the media.

In it, the committee -- which spent close to $1.3 million in support of Oberweis leading into March's contest -- targets Foster for voting to recess instead of staying in Washington to debate energy policy. Last week, the NRCC released an "energy report card" that painted Foster as unwilling to get behind solutions to energy issues.

"Bill Foster has used his brief stint in office to define himself as an out-of-touch obstructionist, but this report card paints an alarming picture of a member of Congress who will do anything he can to side with Democrat leadership instead of the people of Illinois," NRCC spokesman Ken Spain stated in one release

The fact that the Republicans are targeting Foster in this fashion shows that they plan on using the August recess to attack any and all Democrats. After all, Foster is not exactly anti-drilling. He recently joined a bipartisan group of House members in supporting a bill that would expand offshore drilling and use some of the revenue from those new leases to fund the development of renewable and alternative energy sources.

Is Foster's chosen bill the right answer for Democrats? Not in my opinion. But he also can't be accused of "sid[ing] with the Democratic leadership."

This morning, the House passed The FISA Amendment Act of 2008 by a vote of 293-129. Authored by House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, it was billed as a bipartisan compromise. The Media Consortium's Brian Beutler writes that while it certainly did garner support from both sides of the aisle, calling it a compromise "is a total farce." Salon's Glenn Greenwald agrees. Mark Agrast at the Center for American Progress has more:

Nevertheless, despite these welcome improvements, the bill fails at the most fundamental level to restore the independent judicial check on executive power that the Bush administration has done so much to undermine. Now, instead of determining whether probable cause exists for the issuance of a surveillance order, the FISA Court will be reduced to reviewing the adequacy of the surveillance procedures established by the Bush administration. Instead of evaluating the sufficiency of the assurances that were given to telecommunications companies to obtain their cooperation, the federal district courts in which the lawsuits against the companies have been filed will be authorized to do little more than determine whether such assurances were in fact provided.

Unfortunately, four members of Illinois' Democratic congressional delegation voted in favor of the measure -- Melissa Bean (8th), Rahm Emanuel (5th), Dan Lipinski (3rd), and Luis Gutierrez (4th).

But praise is in order for Democrats Phil Hare (17th), Jesse Jackson Jr. (2nd), Jan Schakowsky (9th), Danny Davis (7th), Jerry Costello (12th), and newcomer Bill Foster (14th), all of whom voted to ensure the civil liberties of Illinoisans.

Last night's House vote on the war supplemental bill will frustrate some progressives. Broken into two amendments, the first focused on the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, which Congress agreed to fund to the tune of nearly $162 billion through the first part of FY 2009. The second half of the bill dealt with domestic spending and progressive House leaders were forced to make some concessions on that front as well. Members of the Blue Dog coalition forced Democratic leaders to offset the cost of increased veterans' benefits but balked at an actual proposal to do so -- a tax increase on individuals with incomes above $500,000 a year or couples making over $1 million -- leaving unresolved the question of how those education benefits will be funded. And while Dems pushed through a 13-week extension of unemployment benefits, they were forced to retain a requirement that beneficiaries work at least 20 weeks to be eligible for benefits, thanks to dishonest arguments put forth by GOP opponents.

But not all was lost. As part of the second amendment, $400 million was devoted to science research, potentially staving off at least some layoffs at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and Argonne National Lavorator in Batavia, IL. Rep. Bill Foster was a major supporter of the measure and said he has received assurances from the White House that it will not be vetoed by Bush:

"The scientific community was hit hard by the funding cuts that were included in the omnibus bill last year," Foster said in a statement. "As a result, scientific research in general and Fermi in particular have suffered tremendously."

Treated more or less as a novelty during his successful campaign for Congress, Bill Foster's background as a particle physicist is playing an increasingly important role in his representation of the 14th District. Specifically, Foster's scientific background has strengthened Democratic efforts to drum up federal support for Batavia-based Fermilab, one of the Department of Energy's national science laboratories.

The Daily Herald recognized his support of the facility in an editorial over the weekend:

Foster joined other Illinois members of Congress and U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin two weeks ago in proclaiming the U.S. Senate had approved $250 million in funding for energy, helping to assure Fermilab in Batavia could continue its research and retain staffing that was threatened by budget cuts late last year. Now Foster will push the concept among his colleagues in the House in hopes of approving the bill, which earmarks $100 million for the Department of Energy's Office of Science and another $150 million to the National Science Foundation.

Foster himself worked at Fermilab before entering politics. Not only has he championed the lab in the halls of Congress, he also recently spoke with physicists in Batavia, pushing them to more clearly communicate the "health, security, and economic" importance of their projects to lawmakers in Washington.

Beyond the general promise that scientific advancement holds for the entire country, Fermilab is a pressing issue in the 14th District. The lab is planning to lay off some of its 1,900-person workforce due to recent budget cuts.

The Hill's Mike Soraghan highlights an interesting fissure between Democratic allies in the Illinois congressional delegation. On the one hand, there's Rep. Bill Foster, who sponsored a bill preventing anyone convicted of a sex offense, mortgage fraud, or drug-dealing in the last five years from buying foreclosed homes that the government acquired as part of its $15 billion federal grant and loan bailout program. This concern over ex-convicts was first trumpeted by Republicans during initial congressional debate and Foster took it upon himself to push the specific provision.

But Danny Davis, a long-time advocate of prisoner re-entry and the chief sponsor of the recently-signed Second Chance Act, was none too pleased. He immediately drafted and circulated a “Dear Colleague” letter criticizing Foster's approach, reminding his congressional allies that "access to housing can be a key factor for formerly incarcerated parents to make positive changes and rebuild their lives." The Washington-based prison reform organization The Sentencing Project joined Davis' call to dismiss Foster's punitive bill:

“Men and women transitioning to life after incarceration are already disproportionately likely to become homeless,” wrote Sentencing Project Executive Director Mark Mauer. “Creating additional obstacles to housing will only worsen this condition.”

On May 13, House leaders pulled the bill before it came up for consideration and Foster’s spokeswoman suggests he has no interest in altering it, leaving it in Congressional limbo. More broadly, the episode serves as a helpful reminder to Illinois progressives: while Foster's win is valuable, especially because he's been on the right side of a lot of fights thus far, he's still a moderate Democrat in a conservative district and will need to be pushed by progressive activists to take decisive stands on issues that aren't in his wheelhouse.