Dems file complaint against Oberweis

CHICAGO - Democrats excited about the chance to snag former GOP House Speaker Dennis Hastert's seat in next week's special election asked federal officials Thursday to investigate the Republican in the race. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee said it filed a complaint against Republican Jim Oberweis over a recent campaign finance filing, evidence of the party's razorlike focus on a district it wants to win to boost its numbers in Congress. Oberweis' camp claims it's just more nitpicking by Democrats who are filled with the false hope they can snatch away a district west of Chicago that the GOP has reliably counted on for years. “They're trying to distract attention. That's what's going on,” Oberweis spokesman Bill Pascoe said. The contest for Hastert's seat in the 14th District is one of three open House races in Illinois because of GOP retirements. The others are the seats of Reps. Jerry Weller in Morris and Ray LaHood in Peoria. Democrats' chances to pick up another one of those seats improved last week when the Republican nominee to replace Weller dropped out of the race. In the battle for Hastert's seat, Democrats claim Oberweis didn't file the proper paperwork after he made loans to his campaign. They say he gave so much to his campaign that it triggered the so-called Millionaires' Amendment allowing Bill Foster, a wealthy businessman like Oberweis, to raise more money. “Jim Oberweis is running for Congress, but he seems to have a problem following the law,” Foster said in an e-mail statement. Pascoe contends Oberweis' campaign didn't trip the amendment because the money went into accounts for two different elections. He says an amended Feb. 26 filing corrected a clerical error to clarify that the loans for $300,000 and $340,000 were for different elections. Oberweis is the Republican nominee in both a March 8 special election and the November general election. The special election is to fill the remainder of Hastert's term, which ends next January, and the winner of the general election will get a new full term. “Failure to respond strongly to Oberweis's latest episode of misconduct will tell self-financing candidates all across the land that they need not follow the law to make the Millionaires' Amendment work, but can sandbag their opponents with no fear of imminent response,” the DCCC's executive director, Brian Wolff, said in a letter to the Federal Election Commission. Oberweis, whose name is synonymous with his family's dairy business, has been penalized by the FEC before. He was fined $21,000 last year for a commercial for his dairy that the FEC said he wrongly benefited from in an unsuccessful 2004 Senate bid. Oberweis lost GOP primary bids for the Senate in 2002 and 2004. He also ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination for governor in 2006. Besides complaining about the campaign finance filing, Democrat Bill Foster's campaign this week publicized problems with disclaimer requirements in an Oberweis TV ad that was critical of Foster. Foster's camp accused Oberweis of trying to evade responsibility for allegations in the ad. Oberweis' spokesman said it had to do with the placement of a disclaimer within the ad and it since has been fixed.