Today is the special election for Hastert’s former House seat in Illinois and the race has been polling neck and neck. This should be an easy GOP hold, but the Democrat, Bill Foster, has campaigned hard and I have heard grumblings from Republicans on other Web sites of some dissatisfaction with our candidate, Jim Oberweis, over an alleged incident of him employing illegal immigrants at his dairy farm and paying wages slightly over $3 an hour. Oberweis denied the allegations and claimed it was a smear job. I don’t know that it was ever proven one way or another.

Update: With 74% of precincts reporting, Frost is leading Oberweis 53% to 47%. We’re going to lose this seat.  The Illinois GOP will once again prove to be incompetent.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) reiterated Friday that he will not run against Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.).

The filing period began March 3, the day before Huckabee withdrew from the presidential race, and ends Monday.

In an interview with The Hill, Huckabee said he is still “decompressing” from his presidential campaign, and reaffirmed past statements that indicated he had no interest in challenging Pryor or serving in the Senate.

In a mid-February breakfast with reporters, Huckabee joked, “There’s a greater chance that I would dye my hair green, cover my body with tattoos and go on a rock tour with Amy Winehouse.”

Huckabee repeated that joke Friday, adding: “That was a pretty apt description of my total lack of interest in running for the Senate.”

The Hill

I guess we can write off any possibility of picking off Pryor this year.  The Arkansas GOP is pretty much dysfunctional.  Huckabee is really the only big Republican name in the state that I am aware of.

He’s going to be debating John Edwards at a manufacturing association event on June 18.