Bill Foster

Bill Foster
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Illinois's 14th district
Incumbent
Assumed office  March 8, 2008
Preceded by	Dennis Hastert
Born	October 7, 1955 (1955-10-07) (age 54) Madison, Wisconsin
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Aesook Byon
Children	Billy Foster Christine Foster
Residence	Batavia, Illinois
Alma mater	University of Wisconsin–Madison Harvard University
Profession	Physicist Business Owner
Website	Congressman Bill Foster

George William "Bill" Foster (born October 7, 1955) is an American physicist, businessman and politician from the state of Illinois. A Democrat, Foster was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives as the Representative from Illinois's 14th congressional district, defeating Jim Oberweis in the widely-watched March 2008 special election to replace former Representative and former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, a Republican.

Personal background

Foster was born in 1955 in Madison, Wisconsin. He received his bachelor's degree in physics from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1976 and his Ph.D. in physics from Harvard University in 1983. The title of his doctoral dissertation is "An experimental limit on proton decay: p -> e + pi0" and is available from University Microfilms International as document number 8402995.

Foster lives in Batavia, Illinois. He has lived and worked in the Tri-Cities area (Geneva, Batavia, and St. Charles) since 1984.

Foster's children Billy and Christine were born and raised in the Fox Valley. Billy graduated from Batavia High school, received a bachelor's degree in mathematics and computer science from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 2006. Christine went to school in Batavia, attended the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy (IMSA) in Aurora, and received a bachelor's degree in Science, Technology, and Society from Stanford University in 2009.

Science and business career

After completing his Ph.D., Foster moved to the Fox Valley with his family to pursue a career in high-energy (particle) physics at Fermilab, a Department of Energy National Laboratory. Fermilab is home to the Tevatron, a powerful particle accelerator; during Foster's 22 years at Fermilab he participated in several notable projects, including the design of equipment and data analysis software for the CDF Detector, which were used in the discovery of the top quark, and the management of the design and construction of a 3km Anti-Proton Recycler Ring for the Main Injector.^[1][2] He has been elected a fellow of the American Physical Society, was on the team receiving the 1989 Bruno Rossi Prize for cosmic ray physics for the discovery of the neutrino burst from the supernova SN 1987A, received the Particle Accelerator Technology Prize from the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, and was awarded an Energy Conservation award from the United States Department of Energy for his invention and application of permanent magnets for Fermilab's accelerators.^[3]

Foster was also involved in business pursuits. At age 19, he and his younger brother Fred Foster started a company in their basement with $500 from their parents. The business, Electronic Theatre Controls (ETC), now has over 650 employees worldwide and manufactures over half of the theater lighting equipment in the United States. Installations include Broadway shows, Rolling Stones tours, opera houses, Super Bowl halftime shows, and at schools, churches, and community centers around the world.^[4]

Political career

On November 26, 2007, former House Republican Speaker J. Dennis Hastert resigned as the Representative from Illinois' 14th congressional district. Foster announced his candidacy to fill the vacancy on May 30, 2007.^[5]

Foster's positions in the following 14th congressional district election included ending involvement in the War in Iraq, increasing the amount of money used to fund alternative energy research, and enforcing existing immigration laws while allowing for immigration reform to take place. He also supports universal health care.

In the Democratic primaries for the special election to fill Hastert's vacancy and the regular election to fill the subsequent term, held simultaneously on Super Tuesday (February 5, 2008), Foster defeated John Laesch for the Democratic nomination by a narrow margin of 323 votes in the regular cycle^[6] and a wider margin of 3,739 votes in the special cycle.^[7]

After a short campaign season marked by aggressive (and often negative) campaigning,^[8] on March 8, Foster won the seat, edging heavily favored Republican Jim Oberweis, whom Hastert had endorsed, in the general election with 53 percent of the vote.^[9] Foster's upset victory in the initial campaign was aided by dischord within the local Republican party, particularly among supporters of Chris Lauzen, whom Oberweis had narrowly defeated in what had also become an increasingly negative campaign during the Republican primary. Additionally, Illinois Senator Barack Obama, who was in the middle of a heated and historic race with Hillary Clinton for the party's Presidential nomination, made a series of television commercials endorsing Foster for the congressional seat.

Although it was initially thought that Foster would not be sworn in until April due to the need to count absentee ballots before the first election would be certified, he took the oath of office on March 11.^[10] On his first day in office, he cast the deciding vote to keep from tabling an ethics bill that would create an independent outside panel to investigate ethics complaints against House members.^[11][12]

Months later, Foster and Oberweis faced off again, this time for a full term in the House, but Foster changed his approach from the negative themed ads in his initial run. In fact, Foster's campaign ads did not mention any affiliation with the Democratic party, rather using the slogan "Independent Solutions." In this second race, which culminated during the general election on November 4th, 2008 Foster held the seat, and increased his margin of victory.

Committee assignments

• Committee on Financial Services
  • Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance, and Government-Sponsored Enterprises
  • Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit
• Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
  • Subcommittee on Domestic Policy
  • Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs

References

External links

• House of Representatives website
• campaign website

• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Voting record maintained by The Washington Post
• Campaign finance reports and data at the Federal Election Commission
• Biography, voting record, and interest group ratings at Project Vote Smart
• Issue positions and quotes at On The Issues
• Campaign contributions at OpenSecrets.org

• IEEE-G. William Foster academic journal papers