Dairy magnate Jim Oberweis held a narrow advantage over state Sen. Chris Lauzen in a poll taken for Oberweis last month on their GOP primary matchup to replace retiring former Speaker Dennis Hastert (R).

In the ballot test of 333 likely GOP primary voters, taken Oct. 16-18 by McLaughlin & Associates, 41 percent chose Oberweis, while 37 percent picked Lauzen. Oberweis’ lead was within the survey’s 5.4-point margin of error.

Oberweis fared better though in an overlapping general election survey pairing him with the three declared Democrats. Against scientist and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee favorite Bill Foster, 49 percent of likely voters polled picked Oberweis, 22 percent chose Foster, and 29 percent were undecided. The general election portion of the survey, which polled 300 likely voters, had a 5.7-point error margin.

— Matthew Murray