Rep. Bill Foster was sworn in as the new 14th District congressman Tuesday afternoon on the House floor. Watch the video of the ceremony and his remarks and see the campaign press release and a letter to his supporters below.

YouTube video (8:35)

There's been plenty of post-election analysis and speculation about why Jim Oberweis lost the congressional seat that has only once before been held by a Democrat.

Was Oberweis too negative and divisive? Did Chris Lauzen doom the GOP when he refused to mend fences and urge his supporters to vote for his former opponent? Has the 14th District gone Democratic?

Many of our readers, however, have suggested something else also played a role. Some Republican voters are saying they simply stayed away from the polls because they were so annoyed by the barrage of political 'robocalls' they were receiving at home.

I imagine that all the agency heads that had to plead their cases to the state last year are none too happy about having to put on a repeat performance, knowing their cries for money could get twisted into the state's dysfunctional budget game again.

The circus once again is coming to Aurora.

The budget hearing next Tuesday is, according to House Speaker Mike Madigan's office, "designed to give community leaders, business owners, labor officials, service providers, advocacy organizations, health care facilities, school districts, colleges and local residents an opportunity to share their views about state funding priorities, ways to reduce costs and means to improve government efficiency."

Knowing that this year's local hearing could produce the same results as last year's -- close to nothing -- what should the state's priorities be?

Did you hear the one about the upstart Democrat who cruised to an unlikely victory only to see his hopes for re-election taken away? Or how about the one about the loyal Republican who was tossed under the bus by his own party?

Jokes? Nightmares? Or just Illinois politics?

9:58 a.m. UPDATE BELOW: Laesch withdraws challenge.

We live-blogged Saturday from the Election Night headquarters of both Bill Foster and Jim Oberweis as the election results came in for the 14th Congressional District special election.

See how the night progressed leading up to Foster's victory and add your comments.

Those who love to hate Wal-Mart can recite a littany of reasons why the world's largest corporation is bad for the communities it plops its big-box stores into; some of those arguments are hard to refute.

But with Wal-Mart opening its newest Supercenter in Aurora today, I found another town's story interesting.

It seems Wal-Mart doesn't, in fact, kill off the competition.

In the never-ending war of attacks ads in the 14th Congressional District race, the Foster campaign is introducing a new tactic in the days before the Saturday special election. The Democrat is appealing to Republicans who supported Chris Lauzen in the primary election.

The latest mailer criticizes Jim Oberweis for attacking Lauzen and other fellow Republicans during his previous failed campaigns for office. It includes a picture of the Lauzen family splattered with mud and a reference to Ronald Reagan's "commandment" to not speak ill of a fellow Republican. The missive concludes, "It's time to stop Jim Oberweis before he smears again."

This is such a horse race that Foster is sending this mailer to Republican voters. If he can win a few disgruntled Lauzen supporters, it could make a difference.

It looks like some lawmakers have seen the proverbial light when it comes to the ill-advised moment of silence law approved last year.

Instead of making the moment of silence mandatory for all schools, a new bill would restore power to local schools -- where it should have remained in the first place -- to decide if the school day should begin with a moment of reflection.

Among those changing their votes from last year were House Minority Leader Tom Cross. But not all local lawmakers voted for this change.

It looks like people opposed to the Indian Prairie boundary changes (and the new location of Metea Valley High School) are getting ready to sue.

They've set up a Web site basically announcing an impending court fight:

We are also unhappy with the decisions of district officials and concerned about the future of the district...and, to that end, have secured legal counsel to explore options ranging from stopping the new high school location to overturning the 2006 Referendum.

Did you think it was over? It is not over. Our legal team thinks we have a fighting chance - so should you.

The local news media has stood by the school board and administrations' comments and either lacks the ability or the interest to delve into details of how taxpayers have been misled in a classic "bait and switch" to build a school that is poorly located, too large by any measure, and perhaps, not even needed. Where was the unbiased journalism? The investigative reporting?

OneMan has dissected our endorsement of Bill Foster as no big surprise. To him, in races that involve a "real" Democrat, our editorial board almost without fail chooses the Democrat.

He cites several recent races as evidence.

Their attempt to act like that because they endorsed Hastert in the past that the fact that they endorsed a Democrat is a big deal. In virtually every contested local race (where there is a 'real' democrat running) they endorse the democrat. The first Holmes vs Wintermute race, they endorsed Linda Holmes with out even mentioning that she wrote for them. They endorsed Weisner over Irvin, Chapa LaVia over everyone, I don't think anyone would consider the Beacon a 'Republican' paper. Nice try framing it that way Beacon.

I can just as easily pick examples of when we've chosen a Republican over a "real" Democrat (although there aren't a lot of "real" Democrats who have run in these parts), which I suggest just proves the folly over trying to label the editorial board.

One of the main considerations when talking about demolishing NIU's Cole Hall is how the campus should best remember the shooting victims while also trying to move past the tragedy.

It seems like razing the building so soon after five students were killed there is a rash decision being made while the NIU community is still mourning. Throw in the governor making a pitch for $40 million in state funds and all of a sudden the debate becomes political.

That's the last thing NIU needs right now.

When you are a member of the media and you meet a real estate agent, there's one thing you can count on hearing: an earful.

A few weeks back, my wife and I were chatting with a couple while waiting for a table at a restaurant. The woman asked what I do; I asked what she does. She told me she was a Realtor, and after I told her we bought and sold property last year with relative ease she suggested that folks in my profession were making the market even more difficult than it already is.

Homebuilders are saying the same thing (via Al's Morning Meeting).

From MarketWatch:

Toll (Brothers) said all the discussion of whether the economy's in recession is dampening the mood of consumers, though it noted "glimmers of hope" in a few markets, including Naples, Fla., and the Washington, D.C., suburbs.

"Ceaseless talk of a recession continues to dampen the mood of consumers in general, whether or not a recession actually occurs. For home buyers, we believe this drumbeat, coupled with concerns over mortgages, the direction of home prices, and foreclosures, has kept pent-up demand on the sidelines," said Robert Toll, chairman and chief executive, in a statement.

This is a great chicken-vs.-egg argument.

With Aurora Alderman Rick Lawrence perhaps poised to launch a mayoral bid, we could see for the second consecutive election cycle a primary for the city's top elected job.

Alderman Stephanie Kifowit has already said she plans to run. And incumbent Mayor Tom Weisner has amassed a large campaign war chest, although he has not announced his intentions. If all three (and maybe more) seek the office, Aurorans will be asked to winnow the field down in a primary early next year.

After much eye-rolling and smirking from the candidates, we've just completed our editorial board endorsement session with Bill Foster and Jim Oberweis.

The best line of the day: "Jim, you're just making stuff up." That's Foster after Oberweis tried to tell the editorial board what he thought Foster's position was on immigration reform. It might just as well have been the quote either candidate used throughout the session to describe the other's positions.

This will come as no surprise, but while the primary election was a study in nuanced differences, the special general election is all about the chasm separating Oberweis and Foster on the issues. If you support the concept of universal health care, Foster's your man. If you support the war effort in Iraq, Oberweis is your guy.

Bill Foster won't participate in any public forums leading up to next month's special election. The question is, why?

Why shouldn't voters get one more crack at asking questions, or at least hearing Foster respond to questions, in a public forum?

This isn't the first time Foster has been criticized for not attending public debates. His Democratic challengers in the primary, John Laesch and Jotham Stein, took Foster to task for missing repeated forums during that election.

But Foster spokesman Andrew Dupuy said that the campaign tries to aim for the highest audience possible when scheduling public appearances, so that as many voters as possible can be informed about the candidates. He noted that four of the five upcoming appearances would reach wide audiences -- two of them are televised, and two of the editorial board meetings will appear on the Internet.

Foster and Jim Oberweis will appear before The Beacon News editorial board today. We'll have more on that here after their 3 p.m. meeting. But meeting with a bunch of newspaper people is far different than meeting with the voters, even if the editorial board sessions end up as Internet videos (as ours will).