"Well, what do I do now for some dough? Go back to paying myself out of my campaign?"That probably wasn't the caption Seals had in mind when he donned his "pensive pondering" look for this photo, but I think it may fit. That's because less than 90 days after "The Point" activist Internet website went live with 10th Congressional District Candidate Dan Seals as its first "Director of Business Development," it appears that Seals is no longer associated with The Point.
Frankly, I didn't expect that gig would last long for Seals, but I'll admit I didn't think it would only last three months.
Here at the Team America Blog, we were the first to notice back in October that Seals had abandoned his commitment to be a full time candidate for the 10th District, and had taken a job with ThePoint.com. See our first post breaking the story here. For those of you new to the story, The Point appears to be a site where do-gooders can engage in ‘risk-free’ activism. See the story link above for more details, but the basic idea is that people can propose an idea (called a "campaign"), such as 'boycott Hollywood video for assessing excessive late fees,' but no one actually is committed to going through with the boycott unless enough people agree to do it. That's called the "tipping point." You can also set up campaigns to raise money or engage in other forms of activism. Many of the campaigns appeared to be generally anti-business, including the ones that Dan Seals personally supported (including the 'end Hollywood late fees' campaign).
Dan Seals' bio on The Point website, until this past week (as far as I can tell), read as follows:
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 had pointed out a number of concerns with this bio, especially the fact that Seals was listed as a "former" candidate for Congress, well after he had officially announced his candidacy back in June 2007. See additional TA posts analyzing the issue here and here. Some pundits like Publia even took Seals' new job to be an indication that perhaps he had reconsidered his decision to run at all (see the 10/27/07 post), especially given his designation as a "former" Congressional candidate on ThePoint.
Seals' team didn't like that at all, and Seals' myrmidon Ellen Beth Gill leapt to his defense, soliciting a bone-headed statement from Seals' campaign (and publishing it on her website) that ducked the issue and defended Seals' need to work. Not only did the Seals statement ignore Seals' new job with The Point (which was the entire point anyway), but also stated that Seals working a day job benefited the 10th District because he's a taxpayer. Oops. His own camp forgot that Seals doesn't even live in the 10th District. You can read all about that debacle here.
As far as TA knows, Seals never admitted in any press release, published interview or other available record that he actually was employed by The Point. Rather, he continued to call himself a "business consultant," which I suggested was equivalent to lying on one's resume, given that it's just as wrong to leave pertinent information out as make it up. But, his employment at The Point was confirmed by obtaining a copy of an e-mail that Seals sent out to business prospects in the course of his new position. See here at Unicorporated Middle's Blog, where I posted the text of the Seals e-mail in comments. And, we never did figure out how The Point was suppose to make any money with which to pay its employees, which led to all sorts of speculation as to whether The Point was even legit.
In any event, I regularly returned to The Point website time and again, wondering if they were ever going to revise Seals' bio to indicate he is a current, not former, candidate for Congress. However, since The Point appeared to pride itself on being a 'non-partisan' site, I had doubts as to whether this would ever happen, or if they even knew about Seals' current candidacy (though that would seem highly unlikely). His bio was never updated or revised, however, and was up on The Point website in its original form through Thanksgiving.
That changed at least as of this past Friday night, when I visited The Point and noticed the conspicuous absence of Seals' bio. Check it out (at least, check out the absence of the bio, I mean) for yourself here.
So, what happened? I suppose, since it's the weekend and I haven't had any opportunity to call The Point offices down the block from my downtown office and ask for Mr. Seals, it's possible he could still be employed, and maybe his bio was just taken down for 'updating.' But I doubt it. Although, as of this weekend, his voice mailbox at the office appeared to be active, but I decided not to leave a message for now.
Assuming I'm correct, I also doubt we'll ever know why Seals left. Whether he had a lousy 90 day evaluation and was asked to leave (perhaps because campaigning didn't leave him enough time to work), or because when The Point management finally found out he was an active candidate, they didn't dig that, or because Seals decided that he needed to spend more time focusing on his primary opponent Jay Footlik for the right to run again incumbent Mark Kirk in the general election, I really don't know. But, since Seals never seemed willing to admit to his job with The Point in the first place, the circumstances of his leaving will probably always be a mystery, much like the last three months will probably be on his resume.
UPDATED 12/3/07 2:30 p.m.: Established Internet pundit "Bored Now" has a comprehensive (if tilted toward Seals) look at the 10th District primary. Check it out here.
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29 comments:
TA:
Looks like Dan Seals is unemployed again. Word is that GE asked him not to come back and he has been without an income for two years.
FEC records releaved he paid himself out of his own contributor's campaign contributions.
Tough pitch for the Seals campaign -- "Give me money so I can spend it on myself!" No wonder 99.9% of candidates NEVER DO THAT.
Meanwhile Jay Footlik has a career, a job and a well-run campaign -- mailing, TV and appearances.
Dan Seals is becoming kind of a joke.
The thought of Dan Seals representing me in Congress is frightening on many fronts the least of which is his lack of brains, inability to hold a job and willingness to sell out Israel, but I feel criticism of his attempts to earn money while campaigning is unfair.
As long as an incumbent takes a salary from the taxpayers, challengers have a right to earn money as well, which is why the McCain-Feingold bill allowed candidates to take a salary from campaign funds. There is nothing wrong with leveling the playing field. It is fair.
In Seals case, I understand his wife has a fine job, so he can always live off her while campaigning if need be.
Take a look at DailyKos today (http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/12/1/101128/711). It writes, “Dan Seals- IL-10, Dan has hit his stride this campaign, bringing in the endorsements and the fundraising to take out PAC-loving, Arab-fearing incumbent Mark Kirk.
Someone should give that guy an earful.
Actually, no one can actually say what Footlik does in his job or what his firm does. It as all extremly vague. What we do no is that:
1) there does not seem to be any record of his firm before 2006
2) his firm is a registered lobbyist
3) footlik claims this lobbying has something to do with homeland security and/or a "secure Middle East peace".
4) In the past, footlik has lobbied for the like of the government of Cote D'Ivoire and Serbia.
Can any of the footlik supporters provide actual detail as to what footlik does?
Anon 7:31- thanks for the DailyKos tip. I read the post, and it just shows how divorced from reality Kos is. I doubt anyone with boots on the ground here in the 10th District would accuse Seals of being anywhere close to 'hitting his stride.'
Dan Seals has less on his resume than he did two years ago.
Footlik has accomplished much in the last two years -- what has Dan Seals accomplished in the last year?
Nothing
The DailyKos is an anti-semetic site. Just look at what they said and did to Israel at their "convention."
Why do people always cry "anti-semite!" whenever someone criticizes Israel? Judaism is a religion; Israel is a country. Not every Israeli is Jewish, and not every Jew is even a zionist.
I didn't follow the spat with Daily Kos, but it sickens me that people attempt to shutdown rational discussion of Israel by throwing around the claims of anti-semitism.
Anon, 12:09.....The Daily Kos allows posts and statements that ARE anti-Semitic. Want proof? There's plenty to provide if you're interested. Israel is a country, not better or worse than any other country. The leaders of Israel are not asking to be treated as special, different, priviledged, or even righteous. All Israel has ever wanted since it's establishment is the right to exist. When Blog posters say outrageously ignorant statements about Israel, it's offensive. When Israel is blamed for the ills of the world that is also offensive and stupidly ignorant. Those who frequent the Daily Kos seem to have a penchant for making very nasty statements about Israel, about people like Senator Joe Lieberman, about anyone standing in strong support of the State of Israel. No country is perfect, not ours and not Israel. But it is odd that the posters on Daily Kos seem to see only the negatives when they post about that country.
Well TA it seems that the old adage, here today, gone today, applies again to Dan Seals with his "job" at The Point. I never did get the point of The Point. It's hard to understand how a guy with a U of C MBA can't get and/or hold a job. It's hard to understand what he's been doing the past couple of years. He hasn't made a name for himself by volunteering his time for some worthy organization. He hasn't been involved in community programs or projects that have made headlines. So who IS Dan Seals? I guess he feels he doesn't have to do any campaigning to win this Primary. Perhaps he's right. But on 2/6/08 I hope the voters in this district will have a lot of questions to ask this guy about where he has been, what he's been doing and, more importantly, what are his plans for the 10th Congressional District. He and his buddy over there on the 10th Dems Blog can continue to hammer away at the war. Back here we are also interested in how he intends to actually solve problems, address real issues for the people he says he'd like to represent. I'll be listening.
Note: the "arab-fearing" line links to Kirk's comment that he favors discrimination against arab men from certain states because these states produce the vast majority of terrorists. Kirk ackowledges that he said that and has never disowned those remarks (or apologized for them).
Here is the reporting: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4155/is_20051106/ai_n15910892
Whether you approve or disapprove of what he said, his quote is a fact. Citing that has nothing to do with anti-Semitism, except insofar as Kirk's line is anti-Semitic because Arabs are Semites.
I am glad to hear that Dan Seals' wife has a good job and can support the family. Last time around, his candidacy had more to do with Democrat talking points and Seals' personality than the 10th district. As such, his campaign merited close scrutiny.
While Dan answered his party's call, his campaign does not look like one where the candidate is motivated by principle or the belief that he has more to offer the voter than hs opponents. Nor does it look like a campaign where the candidate has much experience in campaigns.
Dan Seals would be a good candidate for a downstate office, based on his experience level. As a candidate for Congress, his campaign bears all the marks of being party generated rather than personally generated. This is likely the largest reason for all the oddness, and perhaps why he seems so ambivalent about the entire process.
Publia- actually, I'm wondering if what we're seeing from Seals is actually hubris. I sense that he thinks that since he did well (surprisingly so) last time, he is primed to walk into the election this time, 'once those morons at DCCC realize how great I am,' he says to himself. He has done well compared to other non-incumbent candidates in fundraising nationwide (although he still pales in comparison to Kirk's numbers), and with all this attention, I get the feeling he thinks this is going to be a cakewalk.
He's hardly engaged Footlik at all, and seems to be spending little money, which indicates Seals doesn't consider Footlik much of a threat at this point. Of course, Kirk didn't consider Seals much of a threat last time either, and he almost got tripped up. Seals has sent out no mailers that I know of, and his campaigning and personal appearances lately seem to be limited to a bunch of meet n' greets that are not even designed to raise funds.
Kirk will be wiser this time, but has Seals become a victim of his own cult of personality, perhaps.
Seals will get nothing from the DCCC this time either unless he raises enough money, has polling within the margin of error and shows he can get clips in the mainstream media.
This is because they are not “morons” but a group that backs winners. Seals got little help last time because the DCCC was smart enough to see he is not a winner. His lack of disclosing polling data on a potential contest with Mark Kirk shows he has not grown since then.
What Seals is good at is deceiving people in the area into believing the DCCC will help him this time when he has yet to prove himself.
TA, you may be on to something. It is so easy for politicians to become victims of their own propaganda machines, your analysis makes sense. It becomes awfully easy to buy into one's own myth, but generally these candidates lose. Something isn't "right" in Seals' campaign, however. I just can't quite put my finger on what that is.
With the possible exception of Israel, Footlik doesn't offer anything new that I can see, although running a campaign on issues rather than personality could put him out in front. Why should Seals engage Footlik now?
Based on the last time out, the primary is Seals' to lose. No "real Dan Seals" never emerged from the last campaign. It is almost if he arrived pre-fab from DCCC central casting, script in hand, never varying one jot from his party's "talking points."
TA, I agree with you 100%. Mr. Seals appears to take all of this for granted, he seems to feel and to show by his inactivity, that this is his for the taking. I don't believe that Jay Footlik can garner more than 20% of the vote on 2/5. That aside, it is obvious that Seals has nothing to say on issue of substance since all of his talking points center on the Iraq war. He's an empty suit when it comes to talking about, knowing about and understanding the district he wants to represent. The DCCC has a couple of other races in IL that might need their attention, so I can't think that they're just going to give Dan a blank check. By not engaging Footlik before this Primary, Seals is saving his funds for the real battle. I'm still waiting to find out what Seals has been doing for the past year at best, why he's made a hasty exit from The Point, and yes, what's the point of his candidacy. It's been awfully quiet from Seals and his supporters.
What is the purpose of that Blackberry-looking thing clipped to his belt? Don't professionals, who have jobs, use those things? Based on the posts above, I can't see how he would need to check his work email while he is campaigning.
Maybe it's an old hand-me-down that his wife let's him play solitare with...
I was wondering if anyone would notice that.
At the very least, someone ought to tell him that PDAs are not fashion accessories. Maybe in 1996 when PDAs were a bit of a novelty, they were cool to show off, but not anymore.
Shorter TA: Rumors are great, and Dan Seals has bad fashion! Also, he will win in a landslide, but is not wasting lots of money on mailings and ads! How cocky!
It's research, not rumors, Kuz, at least as far as what we can tell from The Point website and the sudden absence of his bio. The website speaks for itself.
If Seals wants to correct any mis-interpretation of the significance of this, he or his team can comment here just like everyone else. Or if you have any inside information, please feel free to share.
Dan Seals may not be able to hold a job, but he seems very effective at fooling a lot of people into electing him to one that pays pretty well, a member of Congress. That angers me more than anything else about him. He does a good job of fooling people and we can’t let that happen to the citizens of the Tenth District. This interloper from the Ninth District should go home and leave us alone.
After Seals lost a close election for Congress and developed excellent name recognition, one would think GE would welcome him back. Guess what? GE was smart enough to drop him like a hot potato. What did he do at GE? I’m not sure, but that is a company that exports 70% of its jobs overseas and rivals Haliburton for no bid contracts in Japan. The Point didn’t need long to learn what GE already knew. Seals gets fired again. Maybe he can find some more part time work with some of his wealthy donors who he is still able to fool. He tried that after the last election but failed to get hired.
What has Seals done? While in college he interned for Sen. Lieberman, touts that to Jewish audiences and runs from it when talking to liberal groups. Then he went to teach in Japan and met his wife, who is able to hold a good job so he can play at politics. Then he came back to work for GE and The Point. We know what happened there.
Now he wants to get elected to Congress so we can pay him what the private sector would not. We need to say no to that. Hopefully Footlik will beat Seals badly enough he will go away. If Seals wins the primary, Mark will tromp him by at least 20 points this time so he will go back to Jan Schakowsky’s district where he lives and leave us alone.
Barbara, we should note that we don't know if Seals was fired, or left on his own accord, or in fact is still there, but is being very, very quiet and decided to take his bio off the website.
In the absence of any information to contradict the fact that his bio was removed, I assume that means he's no longer with ThePoint, but as I said, it's all speculation from there on, unless someone knows the real scoop and can fill us in.
Barbara, I'd love to believe that your wish will come to fruition. Unless I'm way off base I can't see Jay Footlik getting close to defeating Seals in this Primary. Nice thought, but not very likely.
As for Mark Kirk beating Seals next November, I share your feeling that this time our Congressman will beat him with the kind of numbers that reflect all that Mr. Kirk has done to deserve a 5th term in Congress. It's going to take a lot of work, a lot of effort and a huge get out the vote campaign to achieve that goal. As I've said before, Dan Seals is an empty suit with nothing to offer those of us who live in this district. Let's just get over to the Kirk Campaign headquarters and do whatever it takes to guarantee a win next November.
DailyKos is NOT an anti-semitic web site. I'm used to work for AIPAC and am a strong supporter of Israel.
I've been a member of the DailyKos site since 2003, almost the beginning. I've read the overwhelming majority of moderator-posted posts on the home page and there's not an anti-semitic thread anywhere.
You're confusing people who post in an open forum with the views of the forum moderators. Like many Democratic bloggers, Markos believes vile ideas should die from the weight of their own stupidity and not simply by removing it. He applies the same rules to ALL of the thousands and thousands of posts on the site.
If you declare that Kos is an anti-Semitic site, you better be prepared to brand every open site on either side of the aisle as equivalent of the worst comment anybody posts. Somehow I don't think the pro-Israel community wants that same standard applied since many people in our community say some pretty vile things about Palestinians, Muslims and Islam.
Frankly, this whole thing was part of the right wing attempt to paint Democrats as anti-Israel. Don't be so gullible as to be blinded by that.
The Daily Kos wing is the online version of the democrats who proudly allowed the plo apologists to join them in the anti-Iraq war/anti-america/anti-bush cabal in 2002 or 2003. Jewish Democrats in the 10th are going to deny it, but I was there and saw it here in d.c. and on campus there were a TON of the type of people that vote in the 10th complaining about how concerned they were with it.
Those people are not supportive of Israel and are in sync with the losers on capitol hill who are drunk on the same kool-aid that leftists in Europe use to take the screws to Israel.
Dan's work with this organization is much more than fair game since Mark's seat on approps foreign ops is key to getting Israel funding it needs.
Fighting on this issue would be great for Mark since it would place dan between his base and the independents, moderate democrats Republicans he needs to win. Mark also has more than a coffee making stint in Lieberman's office on his resume dealing with this issue.
What do people think, can Kirk possibly survive redistricting? The district was made safer in 2002 thanks to Hastert, but can be made democrat by swapping precincts with IL-9. Maybe hope that Bean will angle for those Dem precincts instead?
I think he can survive. To remove the right of area Republicans to have a fair chance to elect one of their own would create a backlash which would make liberal activists looks like couch potatoes.
Unfortunately, Illinois and many other states, GOP and DEM have a very long tradition of redistricting away Congressman and not giving folks a fair chance of voting for "one of their own." It happened to Abner Mikva twice!
Actually, I think Mikva's district really was a "Republican" one, but he was so popular he won--just barely. The redistrict, however, created a genuine Republican district. The 9th--where Dan Seals lives--now has been crafted to give Mikva's spiritual heirs a safe and comfy home.
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