A close race in the Democratic contest to succeed former House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) could hurt the party’s chances to win Hastert’s seat in a March special election to fill out the term, and in a general election in November.

Bill Foster led John Laesch by six points and declared victory in the Democratic primary for the special election to fill the seat for the remainder of Hastert’s term. He will now face Republican Jim Oberweis, who won his party’s special election.

Laesch, the Democratic nominee against Hastert in 2006, has yet to concede, but also has yet to ask for a recount.
If the result changed and Laesch became the Democratic nominee in the general primary, Democrats would have different candidates in the March special election to fill out Hastert’s term, and in the general election to elect a candidate to the 111th Congress.

In effect, Foster could potentially win the seat next month but not be his party’s nominee in November.

A challenge to the result could also cause Foster additional headaches during the short five-week period before the special election, which will be held March 8. The regular primary result will not be certified until March 7. This could make his chances of defeating Oberweis in a district that favored President Bush in the 2004 election even more difficult.

Laesch spokeswoman Heidi Wetzel said the campaign is collecting information and will likely make some announcement on Thursday.

“We’re calling all of the counties, we’re gathering the information, and we haven’t really made any decisions yet,” Wetzel said. “We’re also calling to see what percentage of absentee ballots have come in because there’s still two weeks for that. We’re checking everything out.”

Elections in the state are a very decentralized process, and Wetzel said the review was further slowed because a county election board closed down Wednesday due to severe weather in the area.