Ex-party chair gets top honor

DIXON – Dixon resident Doug Farster is not a baker, so he outsourced the job of making a blueberry pie last week.

Farster, 53, got Baker Street Cafe in Dixon to make the pie for an auction at the Lee County Republican Party’s annual Reagan Day dinner on Friday night. At the event, the party named Farster the Lee County Republican of the Year.

For the other pastries, the auction proceeds went to the county Republican Party. But Farster had a different purpose: He wanted to help the family of Marine Lance Cpl. Adam Devine, 21, who was wounded in Afghanistan.

Why a blueberry pie?

It’s a joke in response to an MSNBC ad with Al Sharpton, in which the talk show host says Republicans symbolically have blueberry pie all over their faces.

Bidding $825, state Rep. Jerry Mitchell, R-Sterling, got the pie. That encouraged others to donate. A cowboy hat was passed around, collecting $1,400 more for Devine’s family.

Devine was wounded in action Dec. 28 by an improvised explosive device. The 2008 Dixon High School graduate lost both of his legs from above the knee and has been using a wheelchair.

“He is a true hero,” Farster said. “You want to see someone like him get all the help he can.”

Farster, a former Lee County Board member, has been the supervisor of Dixon Township for 3 years.

He was the Republican Party’s chairman from 1990 to 2004, preceding the current chairman, Greg Witzleb.

Witzleb said Farster has helped numerous statewide and local Republican candidates. And he said his predecessor started the format for the Reagan Day dinner that the party still follows to this day. Also, Faster launched fundraisers that have lasted for years, Witzleb said.

“He still stays active in Republican Party politics,” Witzleb said.

Faster has been watching the race for the Republican presidential nomination.

“I’d like to see [Mitt] Romney. He is the most electable and the most level-headed. Newt [Gingrich] is very intelligent, but he’s too controversial. He rubs independents the wrong way,” he said.