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Oberweis Mounts Campaign For State Senate Seat

SUGAR GROVE, Ill. (CBS) -- A familiar candidate is throwing his hat into the ring again, this time for the Illinois State Senate.

As WBBM Newsradio Political Editor Craig Dellimore report, Oberweis Dairy owner and chairman Jim Oberweis is running for the Senate Seat soon to be vacated by Chris Lauzen (R-Aurora).

LISTEN: WBBM Newsradio Political Editor Craig Dellimore reports

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Lauzen is now running for Kane County Board chairman, and Oberweis is in a contest for the Republican nomination for the seat where his name recognition could prove an advantage. He is up against announced candidate and Blackberry Township supervisor David Richmond.

"As you can expect, I probably won't be a quiet voice," Oberweis said. "I will be doing everything I can to bring the public's attention to the state of our financial condition."

In past years, Oberweis gained something of a reputation as a perennial candidate. He ran unsuccessfully for the GOP nomination for the U.S. Senate in 2002 and 2004, and the gubernatorial nomination in 2006.

Oberweis won nomination for a March special election to replace retiring U.S. Rep. J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) in Congress in 2008, but went on to lose the race to former Rep. Bill Foster. He lost to Foster a second time in November 2008.

But Oberweis is on the Illinois Republican Central Committee, and has received some high-powered endorsements for his state Senate race, including nods from prominent Republican state Sens. Bill Brady (R-Bloomington) and Kirk Dillard (R-Hinsdale).

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