Illinois Democrat embellishes resume in primary win

Millionaire scientist Bill Foster appears to have embellished his resume to appeal to anti-war Democrats as part of his razor-thin victory in Illinois’ 14th district Congressional primary, research by the Majority Accountability Project (www.majorityap.com) has found.

Foster narrowly defeated fellow Democrat John Laesch on Tuesday to become the party’s standard bearer in the race to succeed retired U.S. Representative J. Dennis Hastert, R-IL. During the campaign, Foster repeatedly cited his ties to freshman Congressman Patrick Murphy, D-PA, the only Iraq War veteran serving in Congress and a frequent critic of President Bush’s war strategy.

Foster claims he was so inspired by Murphy’s opposition to President Bush’s Iraq War strategy, he “left his job and campaigned for…Murphy,” then “joined his Congressional staff.”

But a review of House payroll records compiled by the Congressional watchdog group Legistorm.com don’t list Foster’s name anywhere on Murphy’s staff, raising doubts that Foster was, in fact, a member of the freshman Democrat’s Congressional staff. Foster made the claim in a pre-primary mailer sent to Democrats in Illinois’ 14th district.

Murphy reportedly made an e-mail appeal on Foster’s behalf, citing Foster’s volunteer work on his campaign. But Murphy’s e-mail makes no mention of Foster serving on his Congressional staff, as the Illinois Democrat has claimed.

Foster claims in another piece of campaign literature that he “camped out in the Ramada inn across from (Murphy’s Pennsylvania) campaign headquarters and, among other things, “wrote a software program that streamlined” the get out the vote (GOTV) process.

That claim is supported by Murphy, even though the only entry concerning Foster in Murphy’s Federal Elections Commission (FEC) campaign finance disclosures lists a Washington, DC, address for Foster.

According to FEC records, Foster spent more than $1.4 million of his personal fortune to defeat Laesch in the February 5 primary election. Despite outspending Laesch by a better than 10-to1 ratio, Foster won the primary contest by the narrowest of margins.

He will face Republican Jim Oberweis, who won a comfortable victory his party’s primary, also held Tuesday. The two men will square off in a special election next month to fill the remainder of Hastert’s term in Congress.