Has Dan Seals Bowed Out of Illinois' 10th District Congressional Race?
Dan Seals has been running for Congress from Illinois' 10th Congressional District almost continuously for over two years. Having lost the election last time out, Seals announced his intention to run again shortly after incumbent winner Mark Kirk was sworn in. Less than a week ago, I read that Seals had raised a very respectable amount of money in campaign funds, and a friend of mine says she has been receiving regular emails from him and his campaign.In a surprise development, it appears that Seals may be quitting the campaign, although there has been no official announcement. Seals has taken a marketing job with a social networking website called "The Point," which has a bio of him stating that he is a "former candidate for U.S. Congress. " Since the website also states that it was launched in September, 2007, and further states that Seals is its Director of Business Development, we find it had to believe that this is a mistake. In addition, we note that virtually all political content has been stripped from Seals' website with the exception of fund raising information.
Returning to the private sector from government service or running for office is a venerable tradition in Illinois' 10th Congressional District. Seals has three young daughters and a wife, and his decision to withdraw from the race--if there has been one--is not only very understandable, but likely good for his family's future. As Seals' political views more closely mirror that of his native Hyde Park than those of the 10th Congressional district--where he has never lived--his decision is likely based on sound polling data. His primary has been shaping up as a costly and bloody contest, guaranteed to leave either candidate badly enough bruised to make it nearly impossible to topple incumbent Mark Kirk.
With best wishes for Mr. Seals new venture and his return to private life, we've posted up a picture of Roman god Janus, who ruled new beginnings. Our distaste for Seals' brand of politics was never personal, and we harbor no ill will toward him and his motley crew of supporters, often imported from other campaigns, who sought to change the political tenor of the district from its gentlemanly past.
As we have no official announcement of Seals' intention to quit, in the event Seals does not bow out, we won't have to change the picture.
A big hat tip to new firebrand blog, Team America.
posted by Publia at 8:30 AM
9 Comments:
I can 100% assure you Dan Seals is still in the race and has not dropped out. Unlike many other candidates, Dan is not independently wealthy and continues to work full time to support his family in addition to campaigning.
Well, Anon 8:47, Mark Kirk is no millionaire either, that's for sure. However, Seals was supposedly successful in his post-GE career as a so-called 'private business consultant', so one questions why he needed to take a new job if he could cut the mustard as a private business consultant. Guess that question kinda answers itself.
The bigger question, however, is why a supposedly serious candidate like Seals would take a job with a web-based company that needs high exposure to be successful, with a basically uncontrolled and open forum for anybody's views who might wish to post, and the risk that Seals would be identified with the content on the site, which we can already see generally runs to the anti-business side of the spectrum, to put it mildly.
Plus that little seal picture he uses with his signature really looks silly.
How serious can he still be? If Seals just needed money, there are a ton of lower profile, non-controversial jobs he could have taken to make ends meet while campaigning. Maybe there is more to this than meets the eye, as Publia has suggested.
BTW, thanks for the shout-out, Publia!
Mr. Seals has been "working full time"? Since when is hanging out at Starbucks or whatever the man has been doing for the past several years a "full time" job? Btw, "carpetbagging" is not generaly considered an occupation.
Anon: Mark Kirk isn't independly wealthy, Mr. Footlik grew up in Skokie son of a single mother, so he probably isn't indepently wealthy, and the Green Candidate went into the Navy at a young age, so he probably isn't independently weathy, either. Weath isn't an issue in this campaign, I dont think, and I never said that working full time is evidence of dropping out of the campagin. Most people don't want to be told news on the basis of an anonymous tip, so I don't think it would be right to report your assurances, although they will be available in these comments.
Team: I have a good picture of a lot of seals that I should send Mr. Seals. While Dan Seals is still running, according to the anonymous tip received above, he isn't making much of an effort in terms of verifying that fact on the Internet. I really wonder if he's getting sick of the whole thing. While Mr. Seals said he was running for Congress because he believes that our country has lost its way, I think TA that you are onto the fact that the problem is with Mr. Seals, not our country.
El Rider: You are the one with the calculator that works. Add everything up, and what you have is a man who has spent most of his time in school. I found one internship and a "job" at GE. Most people in marketing have some evidence of that on the Internet (such as Mr. Seals has now), and I find it very curious that Mr. Seals has no references to what he was marketing (other than himself) at GE, where mostly he seemed to have unlimited time to spend in North Shore living rooms meeting and greeting sociable, wealthy Democrats while discussing the downfall of America.
Publia- visit Ellen to see what deep denial her readership is in, via the comments to her weekend post. We are the "liars"--but about what, exactly, we're lying about, they can't seem to pin down. But, it's critical of Seals, so of course, it MUST be a lie, right?
TA,
I took a good look at Ellen's blog, and her entire assumption seems to be that all Republicans are liars. If we support Mark Kirk (or question Dan Seals) we must be Republicans. Hence, we are liars. I think in psychology they call that projection. . .
If I were Dan Seals, I would want to put as much distance between myself and a blog such as hers as humanly possible. While it looks as if Dan may be a candidate after all, it brings up the troubling question whether he knows about this blog and whether it is being done with his approval. That would be pretty frightening.
Surprisingly, Ellen doesn't seem to know about Mr. Seals' new job. I don't see how someone can work 3 jobs and also run for office.
Publia- I doubt that Dan Seals can bring himself to condemn Ellen regardless of what she says. He needs every vote he can get, and she is such a zealot that he cannot afford to alienate her. Sadly, it's the people with minority viewpoints that have the loudest voices that usually get hear and get their way, in either party.
Recall how none of the leading Dem presidential candidates would come out against the MoveOn.org ad against General Patraeus. They couldn't afford to diss MoveOn, as Dan can't really afford to diss anyone whom he thinks controls any likely voters for him.
Publia,
Judging by most of the entries in your blog and by your travel commentary, you seem like a nice person.
So why are you posting things that aren't true? I ran across this whole "Dan Seals isn't running" piece and was pretty surprised. If the guy has filed a petition to run and has sent out press releases saying he's running, why do you say he's not?
I also find it surprising that, for a person who writes a blog called "Wilmette", you can't stop carping about him not living in the 10th because he lives at 638 LaPorte in Wilmette, not even a block and a half from the boundary. Half the things you write about in Wilmette are on the other side of that boundary.
Anon, I think that you have arrived at this post through the magic of google. I stand by the facts posted on October 27, prior to the filing of Petitions. Given the facts, the question is a fair one.
A few days afterward I rechecked both Seals' website and the Point, and there had been no change. It is not rare, nor considered wrong, in Illinois to keep your campaign committe and accept contributions to pay off old campaign debts, and I believe there was an honest question that needed to be asked. I considered and rejected a post questioning whether Seals was only raising funds to pay off his campaign debts, because I didn't feel that was fair. Well, maybe it was fair, but it wasn't very nice.
We have had our troubles in Illinois, with elected members of both parties, and it is clear that hard questions earlier on in the political process would have saved the taxpayers quite a bit of money as we have seen too many government officials indicted, convicted, and sent to prison.
Last time Mr. Seals ran, I do not believe hard questions were ever asked of him, and I felt that there were more questions than answers.
It is possible that if you have a personal or political relationship with Mr. Seals, you were privy to information about his candidacy not known to me or the general public.
Through the magic of Google, the article would persist, even if removed. Supporters of Mr. Seals will be conversant with Mr. Seals status as a candidate and if I was wrong will accord this post little regard,
Mr. Seals is more closely aligned with the far left wing politics of his 9th Congressional District, that of Jan Shackowsky. People need to know that when they choose a candidate. When it comes to politics, the 9th and the 10th are worlds apart. Mr. Seals is not running in the 9th due to the incumbent Democrat.
If this post is wrong it cannot hurt Dan Seals
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