Feb 5, 2008 5:52 pm US/Central
Double Ballot Leads To Confusion In 14th District
Kane County State's Attorney's Office Investigating Problems Tuesday Night
BATAVIA, Ill. (CBS) ―
The race is heating up to replace retiring Congressman Dennis Hastert, the longest-serving Republican speaker in U.S. history.
The 14th Congressional District is in the far western suburbs, and stretches almost to the Mississippi River.
CBS 2's Mike Puccinelli reports on the Democratic side there are four candidates vying for the right to replace Hastert, who resigned last year. They are: John Laesch, a military veteran and union carpenter from Yorkville; Bill Foster, a former Fermilab scientist and entrepreneur; Jotham Stein, an attorney from St. Charles; and Joe Serra, who campaigned part-time.
On the Republican side there are two main candidates: Illinois state Sen. Chris Lauzen and dairy magnate Jim Oberweis. They went head-to-head in a sometimes acrimonious debate last month.
The Democrats also faced off in a similar forum.
The winners of Tuesday's special election will battle it out next month in another special election to see who will serve out the remaining year of Hastert's term. In effect, voters here were voting in two primaries, one to finish Hastert's unexpired term and one to pick a candidate to advance to the November election to win a two-year term in the 111th Congress.
That meant voters got two ballots, but that also apparently led to some problems. CBS 2 has heard from people saying they voted for the presidency twice and confirmed Tuesday evening that the Kane County State's Attorney's office is investigating.
(CBS 2, the Naperville Sun and the Aurora Beacon-News are news partners covering stories in the western suburbs. Send story tips to tips@cbs2chicago.com. (© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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