Why is Dan Seals Smiling? He Just Got a New Job! (But It’s Not in Congress)

Dan Seals ran a fairly close race against Mark Kirk last cycle, as we all know. Last time around, he took a leave of absence from his marketing job at GE Commercial Finance in order to campaign (and reportedly paid his living expenses out of his campaign funds). Apparently, GE didn’t need him back, as he became a ‘private business consultant’ after the election, but that’s not the subject of today’s post.

Seals’ pitch this time around is that he is in a much better position to compete against Kirk because he has the entire cycle, rather than only 11 months, to campaign his heart out on a full time basis. Well, it turns out that Seals may not have as much confidence in his chances for success as he says, because he just took a new job with a start-up Internet company. While I was trying to find out if Seals’ claim to be a ‘private business consultant’ was legitimate (i.e., did he have a website, any actual paying clients, etc.), the only thing I could find about Seals’ private business life is a website for a new endeavor (I kinda hesitate to commit to calling it a business just yet, for the reasons discussed below) called The Point (no, not the Chicago radio station).

According to the website (visit here), The Point is brand-new, having been founded in September 2007. As far as I can tell, The Point is a site where activists can engage in ‘risk-free’ activism. The way it appears to work is that if someone has a bone to pick with, let’s say, Target, and that person wants to boycott Target, you create a “campaign” on The Point, and ask 5,000 people (for example) to sign up and agree to boycott Target with you. Only if 5,000 people also agree to do so are you committed to actually go through with it. And of course, from a legal perspective, I don’t see how The Point or anyone else could actually enforce this, but that’s ‘besides the point.’ (Ha Ha) Or, if you want to raise $10,000 to fight world hunger, you agree to pay $10 if 1,000 other people do, but you don’t have to pony up unless the threshold number of contributors (which the campaign manager sets) agree to do so as well. Swell… good, solid old-fashioned activism and consumer defense, but only if there is sufficient safety in numbers.

Interestingly, my review of The Point seems to indicate that neither Target nor any other company is in any immediate danger of mass boycotts sponsored by The Point, as most campaigns only have a handful of people signed up, and as far as I can tell, the only campaign that has reached a threshold number of people is the campaign started by the president of the company to raise $350 to buy a “Wii” video game system for the office. Sorry, but if you can’t afford to front the cash for a video game system for the office (the point of which would be, what, to encourage people to slack off on the job?), how do you afford the copier lease or other office necessities?

In any event, here is Dan’s bio from The Point:

Dan Seals, Director of Business Development
Dan Seals is a former candidate for U.S. Congress. He has also served as a Director at GE Commercial Finance and Group Manager at Sprint. Dan was selected to be a Presidential Management Fellow under the Clinton Administration where he served in U.S. Department of Commerce and in the U.S. Senate. Dan received his MBA from the Graduate School of Business at the University of Chicago, his MA from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and his BA from the Boston University College of Communication.

TA notes a couple VERY interesting things here. First, is the fact that Seals has taken a job with what purports to be a legitimate business venture (as opposed to simply claiming he’s a consultant to hide the fact he’s out of work) on what I assume is a full time basis. Otherwise, why would a start-up company hire a part-timer to be “Director of Business Development”? That would seem to be a pretty darn important position for a brand-new company. So, not only is he clearly not a full time candidate, he also has taken on a significant role with a fledgling company that you would think will be very demanding on his time and energy. Which comes first, Dan, the campaign or the job?

Next, Seals is noted as a “former” congressional candidate. Why the “former” designation??? Seals has not dropped out (yet), as far as I know. I’m sure he wouldn’t have forgotten to mention this little fact during his The Point job interview. So, perhaps The Point doesn’t want people to know that their new Business Development director might be a little… distracted… over the next 13 months. If I was an investor, that’s information I might want to know.

And of course, there’s the whole issue of claiming to be a “Director” of GE Commercial Finance. I did a little looking into GE, and it does seem that they throw the title of “director” around internally pretty liberally, but to the outside world, when you call yourself a “Director,” to me that implies being a member of the Board of Directors for a major financial enterprise, which is an entirely different thing than being a cubicle-dwelling marketing guy. Finally, it's probably worth noting that those companies (or their employees) that are identified as "targets" on The Point probably are not going to be big Dan Fans, assuming that this site ever has any meaningful effect on any company's business. But it's typical of populist Dem rhetoric that seeks to cast businesses as evildoers that need to be slapped down (or better yet, taxed to death) at every opportunity.

What The Point’s business strategy is, or what Dan’s job responsibilities will be, are not clear from the information on the website. But, there is no advertising, no fees to participate or dues to pay, so at this point, I don’t know how The Point is going to make any money. But, that’s not my issue. My question is why Dan Seals is out looking for a new career when I thought he wanted to be MY congressman. So, is Dan Seals simply hedging his bets… just in case—OR ready to give up the race and start a new career? Does Jay Footlik have him THAT rattled? Either way, this makes his commitment to his own campaign seem a lot less impressive than it was a few months ago when he announced that he was going to do whatever it took to defeat Kirk this time around.