11th District foes Bill Foster, Darlene Senger debate

CHICAGO (WLS) -- One of the tighter races with national interest two years ago and again in 2014 is the 11th congressional district in the far western suburbs, where Democrat Bill Foster wants to hold on to the seat he re-gained in 2012 and State Representative Darleen Senger wants to take it back into the GOP column.

The pair debated at ABC7 Saturday.

Republican State Rep. Darlene Senger took an early shot at the Democratic incumbent, calling Bill Foster one of the "do nothings" in congress.

"If you want to get things done you have to be part of the 'do something Congress' and right now we have a 'do nothing' candidate here," Senger said.

But Foster warned voters that Senger would worsen Washington gridlock because she's taken conservative "pledges."

"My opponent has taken the pledge not to compromise on things like the fiscal situation in our country," Foster said.

"Have you taken pledges to vote a certain way? There's a pledge that's being mentioned right now not to increase taxes," said Senger.

"The fact that my opponent has taken this pledge is a very big difference in here," countered Foster.

The west and southwestern suburban 11th includes all or parts of Aurora, Naperville and Joliet. It has Growing latino and Asian American populations, making the immigration reform bill stalled in the republican-led house an important issue.

"Either you're going to return leadership that's been blocking this or you're not. It's really fairly simple," said Foster.

"It's something that we should have done and again it's due to the do-nothing Congress that does nothing," Senger said.

While Foster supported raising the minimum wage, Senger answered this way:

"I'm okay with raising the minimum wage, but let's make sure we've got natural market forces to continue to go forward," Senger said.

"In the Chicago Tribune endorsement interview she referred to it as a job-killer and did not support it," Foster said.

After the debate, Senger, who campaign finance reports indicate is significantly behind foster in fundraising, insisted the 11th district race is a dead heat.

"We're tied in the polls," she said.

The Foster campaign disagrees. Privately, supporters say they believe the incumbent leads the race by a significant margin, but they don't take anything for granted.