Why the GOP Lost Hastert's Seat

Dennis Byrne reports:

Truth is, the loss of the historically Republican district has virtually no national meaning. It is a measure of the moribundity of the Illinoisʼ Republican Party, whose national consequences seem not to be fully appreciated by the GOPʼs national proprietors. The once proud and powerful party of the late senators Everett McKinley Dirksen and Charles Percy, and more recently former Gov. Big Jim Thompson, has sunken to such depths it didnʼt even bother to field token candidates in the populous Cook County.

In many respects, Illinois should be a swing state, much like Ohio, where Democrats and Republicans slug it out on an even playing field. Illinois is rural and urban, agrarian and industrial, with all the demographic makings of both major parties. Despite the conventional Potomac wisdom, Illinois should not be racked up as a permanent blue state.

But the loss of the Hastert-endorsed Republican candidate, Jim Oberweis to Democrat Bill Foster, a businessman, physicist and political novice, had less to do with national issues than it is confirmation that the Illinois Republican Party has slipped into a near-comatose state.