Jim Oberweis

Infobox Person
name = James D. Oberweis


caption =
birth_date = June 10, 1946 (age 62)
birth_place = Aurora, Illinois
death_date =
death_place =
other_names =
known_for =
occupation = Owner and Chairman of the Board of Oberweis Dairy, founder of Oberweis Asset Management
nationality = American
residence = Sugar Grove, Illinois

James D. "Jim" Oberweis (born June 10,1946), is a businessman and investment manager. He is most notable as a Chicago area dairy magnate, owner of the Oberweis Dairy, in North Aurora, founded in 1915 by Peter J. Oberweis. Oberweis campaigned for the Republican nomination for a U.S. Senate seat from Illinois unsuccessfully in 2002 and 2004, and campaigned for the Republican nomination for Governor of Illinois unsuccessfully in 2006. Oberweis was unsuccessful in his March 2008 bid for Illinois' 14th congressional district to succeed Dennis Hastert; however, he is the nominee for the November election. [cite web |url=http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/napervillesun/news/778927,na05_14thdist_s1.article |title=Oberweis takes lead in 14th District race |work=Naperville Sun |accessdate=2008-02-05 ]

Education

Oberweis attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he obtained a bachelor of arts degree and was a member of the Phi Kappa Tau fraternity. He went on to obtain a master's degree in business administration from the University of Chicago. In 1968, he became a junior high school teacher until he changed careers in 1970 to become an investment stockbroker.

Profession

Having served on for a major New York Stock Exchange firm, Oberweis founded and published the "Oberweis Report" newsletter which focused on emerging growth companies. "Hulbert Financial Digest" ranked the "Oberweis Report" as one of the top five investment advice newsletters. In 1978, Oberweis and his wife established an investment management company of their own. In 1986, they used their profits to purchase the family business, Oberweis Dairy. A year later, Oberweis founded the "Oberweis Emerging Growth Fund" which later spawned the "Oberweis Micro-Cap Portfolio" and the "Oberweis Mid-Cap Portfolio". He was also the former owner of Oberweis Securities in Aurora, IL.

Oberweis moved the Oberweis Dairy from Aurora to its present location in North Aurora. He also began a chain of company-owned dairy stores, and has maintained a dairy delivery business to homes in the Chicago area. A franchise program began in 2004, to expand the dairy business outside of northeast Illinois. [cite web |title=Oberweis looks to enter ice cream market |url=http://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/stories/2004/11/29/newscolumn3.html |work=Business First of Columbus |author=Martha Leonard |date=2004-11-26 ]

Television

Oberweis became a financial news anchor and host of the show "Catching Winners Early" on the Financial News Network. In Chicago, Oberweis became a regular guest on the "Ask an Expert" show. Oberweis was also a popular guest on CNBC, CNN and Bloomberg TV.cite web |url=http://www.pol.uiuc.edu/alumni/alum/oberweis.html |title="Alumni Hall of Fame - James D. Oberweis University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign" Retrieved February 12, 2008]

U.S. Senate campaigns

Oberweis ran twice for his state party's nomination for the United States Senate in 2002 and 2004. Oberweis was unsuccessful in both races.

Due to his second-place finish in the 2004 primary, many of the party faithful lobbied heavily for Oberweis to get the nomination when primary winner Jack Ryan dropped out due to scandalous material found in his divorce records. [cite web |url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A5025-2004Jun25.html |title=Republican Ryan Quits Senate Race in Illinois |publisher=Washington Post |date=2004-06-26 |accessdate=2008-02-13] Oberweis's 2004 campaign was notable for a television commercial where he flew in a helicopter over Chicago's Soldier Field, and claimed enough illegal immigrants came into America in a week (10,000 a day) to fill that facility. [cite web |url=http://www.chicagotribune.com/classified/jobs/promo/chi-0402250162feb25,0,5406125.story |title=Oberweis ads rile immigrant groups |work=Chicago Tribune] The stadium seats 61,500 people. [cite web |url=http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/beaconnews/news/653706,2_1_AU16_OBERWEIS_S1.article |title=Oberweis: hard line on immigration |author=Andres Salles |work=The Beacon News |date=2007-11-16] Oberweis was also fined $21,000 by the Federal Election Commission for a commercial for his dairy that ran during his 2004 Senate campaign. The FEC ruled that the commercial wrongly benefited his campaign and constituted a corporate contribution, thus violating campaign law. [ [http://cbs2chicago.com/topstories/Jim.Oberweis.U.2.338635.html cbs2chicago.com - Oberweis Fined For Funding Campaign With Dairy Ad ] ]

Illinois Gubernatorial nomination campaign

On April 14, 2005, Oberweis announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination for the office of Illinois Governor. His campaign ran on many of the same issues as did his previous campaigns for U.S. Senate. During the nomination race, the Oberweis campaign was criticized for its use of attack ads that featured fake newspaper headlines. ["Mr. Oberweis, this headline's real." March 2, 2006 "Chicago Tribune" ] While the headlines were fabricated, they did reflect the news accounts in the articles. [cite web |url=http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=local&id=3952977 |title=Oberweis under fire for campaign ads |date=2006-03-01 |author=Andy Shaw]

In 2006, Oberweis supported two campaigns working to add an amendment to the Illinois constitution prohibiting same-sex marriage beyond existing laws. [cite web |url=http://chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=19239 |title=Oberweis injects potentially divisive issue into GOP primary |publisher=Crain's Chicago Business |date=2006-01-23]

Oberweis lost the campaign for this nomination in Illinois' statewide primary elections held on March 21, 2006.

Controversy

During Jim Oberweis's 2006 gubernatorial campaign, two undocumented workers, Rosa Ramirez and Jorge Ibarra, from Chicago's northwest suburbs brought a complaint to the Illinois Department of Labor alleging that Oberweis Dairy and janitorial subcontractor Patmar Janitorial Service of Lake in the Hills, Illinois, knowingly employed the two and exploited their labor by paying them only $3.23 per hour (less than half of Illinois minimum wage, $6.50 at the time). [http://www.icirr.org/releases/oberweisrelease.doc] Oberweis, an open critic of illegal immigration, said the complaint was a “smear job,” and says that “we weren’t paying them at all…they never existed as employees within our organization.”“We believe that none of the tests for joint employment are met in this,” he says. “The complainants are paid, supervised, and their benefits are provided by others," said Jim Oberweis' gubernatorial campaign manager, Joe Wiegand. [cite web |url=http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=18430 |title=IL Dept. of Labor investigating Oberweis Dairy |work=Crain's Chicago Business |date=2005-11-08]

2008 congressional campaign

In July 2007, Oberweis filed paperwork to run for the U.S. House of Representatives from Illinois' 14th District [cite web |url=http://www.dailyherald.com/news/kanestory.asp?id=329135&cc=k&tc=&t |title=Oberweis files congressional paperwork |publisher=Daily Herald] that was occupied by Dennis Hastert until his resignation on November 26, 2007. [cite web |url=http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/clout_st/2007/11/hastert-formall.html |title=Hastert formally resigns from Congress, setting special election in motion |work=Chicago Tribune Blog Street] On December 10, 2007 Oberweis filed petitions to run for the U.S. House of Representatives from Illinois's 14th District in the special election. On December 13, 2007, Hastert endorsed Jim Oberweis to succeed him the 14th Congressional district seat. [cite web |url=http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/couriernews/news/696866,3_1_EL14_A1HASTERT_S1.article |title=Hastert endorses Oberweis |publisher=The Courier News date=2007=12-14] On February 5, 2008 Oberweis won the Republican primaries for both the special and general elections, defeating State Senator Chris Lauzen by a 56% to 44% margin [cite web |url=http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/napervillesun/news/778927,na05_14thdist_s1.article |title=Oberweis takes lead in 14th District race |publisher=Naperville Sun |date=2008-02-05] . However, the Republican primary was bitter, and Lauzen refused to endorse him. In the special election, he ran against physicist Bill Foster, and was defeated (52,010 voted for Foster, 46,988 for Oberweis) in what has to be considered an upset in this heavily Republican district. Oberweis will again face Foster in the November 2008 general election. Chicago magazine made a comparison between Jim Oberweis' political career with that of Harold Stassen, due to his perennial candidacy for political office, and his perennial losses in elections.

Other accomplishments

Jim was an avid chessplayer in his home state of Illinois. He attained a ranking of 1900 - a class A player.

He ran the Fox Valley Chess Club successfully for many years making it one of the state's premier and most active chess venues. He also served a two year term as the Illinois Chess Association President. He has also served as an Illinois delegate for the United States Chess Federation. [cite web |url=http://main.uschess.org/content/view/86/80 |title=United States Chess Federation |date=2007-06-01 |accessdate=2007-02-12] He served as a trustee of the American Chess Foundation, and the Chess Trust Fund - a non-for-profit organization.

References

External links

* [http://www.oberweisdairy.com/ Oberweis Dairy]
* [http://oberweisforcongress.com/ Oberweis Congressional Campaign Website]