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Jamaican Lands In Middle of Illinois Political Battle

Jamaican-born advocate turned politician and one time New Yorker, Gary Foster, has landed smack in the middle of a congressional election race in Illinois.

Gary Foster

Randy Hultgren, a Republican running in Illinois` 14th Congressional district, released a scathing press release last week accusing his opponent, White Democratic Congressman Bill Foster, of taking donations from Democrat Rep. Maxine Waters.

Except it was not Bill Foster but Gary Foster who received the US$1,000 donation from Waters, who has been charged by the House Ethics Committee with abusing her position of influence to steer bailout funds to a bank with ties to her family.

The Foster campaign responded with a press release humorously entitled, `Hey Mon! You Got the Wrong Guy.` It includes a picture of the two Fosters, captioned, `Hultgren Campaign Apparently Believes Jamaican Man on Left Represents the 14th District of Illinois.`

The Hultgren campaign blamed the Federal Election Commission for erroneously showing the donation going to Bill Foster, not Gary. Foster spokesman Brandon Pinette said it should have been easy for the Hultgren campaign to check the facts before sending out false information.

Gary Foster is the founder of Upliftment Jamaica and former vice president of Rush Communications, a company owned by Def Jam Records honcho Russell Simmons. That Foster has been described in press reports as `the Jamaican Obama.`

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