Incumbent Republican Dennis Hastert coasted to an easy victory against Democratic challenger Jonathan Reich in the race for the 14th Congressional District of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Hastert ran away with the campaign in DeKalb County with 20,886 votes, 65 percent, and Reich came in with 11,456 votes, 35 percent. The vote margin was two-to-one throughout the district for Hastert.

Reich scored big among NIU student voters but failed to build a base of support outside of the DeKalb area. Hastert, who is from Yorkville, ran a laid-back campaign and will start his fourth term in January.

Hastert said now that the campaign is over he will be starting on his agenda for the House.

Hastert said jobs are a big issue for his upcoming term, as well as devising a national health care plan.

Hastert said he is happy with the way the campaign went, especially the end result.

“Ideas of what both me and my opponent stood for were discussed,” he said. “The people then made their choice.

“We worked hard and didn’t take the election for granted,” Hastert said. “A lot of voters crossed over (to vote for a different party.)”

Hastert said the main thing he would like to accomplish in his upcoming term is to create long-term jobs “so people can have peace of mind in the future.”

When asked to comment about the campaign, Reich said, “People in the district won’t have to worry if they have a Congressman to guarantee their rights because they don’t have one.”

Reich also said every student who wants to go to college will not be able to now.

Reich had said previously he is a strong advocate of national stipulations on the quality of American education. He favors national pay standards for teachers, federal funding and universal education from pre-school through college for all Americans who choose to take advantage of it.

Hastert said he favors local control over education through elected school boards.

Reich said he plans to take the future “one day at a time.” Reich is a Unitarian minister, part-time NIU graduate student in the College of Education and spouse of an NIU professor.