Candidates' Corner--a "double shot" of John Laesch (IL-14)

In our posting last week introducing our new show, "Candidates' Corner", we highlighted three Democratic Congressional candidates who we had the opportunity to speak with at the 2007 Yearly Kos Convention in Chicago. One of those three, John Laesch, was right in his backyard as he is running for the Congressional seat in Illinois' 14th District.

I have the good fortune of knowing John for well over a year now, first through Daily Kos, then by a chance meeting at the first Yearly Kos Convention last year, and by staying in touch throughout his campaign last year - where he received a higher vote percentage than anyone else who ran against former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert in a good number of years.

We are proud to have spoken to John and thank him for taking the time out of his busy schedule to talk to the Political Nexus team. you can download or listen to the Yearly Kos interview by clicking here.

John talks about the things he learned from his 2006 run, some of the issues that made him decide to run for Congress, and how we in the netroots can help John in his campaign. It is a must hear interview.

But to top all of this off, Dennis Hastert recently announced that, after serving in Congress since 1986, he would not be seeking another term in 2008. And in a follow up discussion with John Laesch today (Sunday August 19), we talk about John's reaction and thoughts on Hastert's announcement, the issues he is most concerned with, the differences in strategy running against an entrenched incumbent as opposed to an open seat, as well as the recent inflammatory rhetoric by this Administration towards Iran.

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Click here to listen to our discussion from Sunday August 19:

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We are very excited about this new series and hope you enjoy the interviews.