Turkey Day Update: Dan Seals, Jay Footlik, and of course, Mark Kirk

A very happy Thanksgiving from Team America & Friends to you and yours!

I’m sure there will be many sappy ‘thankfulness’ tributes to read and watch today, so none of that here. Although TA is personally thankful for the Seals v. Footlik primary sideshow (which race itself is getting some high-profile attention nationally), today’s post is a gloves-off look at how things in the 10th District race are shaping up.

First, Dan Seals. The big news with Seals is that he FINALLY updated his website, which up until last Sunday, as far as I could tell, had not been touched since he made his announcement to run for a second time. Footlik's website was impressive from the get-go. Unincorporated Middle has a nice run-down on several aspects of the revamped site, but for me, the most interesting thing is that Seals still professes to be a “business consultant,” when in reality, he has become an Internet activist for The Point website. Seals’ website also touts his experience as a “Director” [of Marketing] for GE Finance, but Seals hasn’t been with GE for two years. But, it is strangely silent on his recent job at The Point.

TA wonders, isn’t this the equivalent of lying on your resume? Isn’t it just as bad to leave stuff off as to make it up? Frankly, I am baffled as to why Seals does not simply admit to having this job, especially since it’s just about impossible to deny it, considering the evidence is right over at The Point website. Ironically, when you do actually go over to The Point, it proudly touts Dan Seals as its Director of Business Development, but identifies him as a “former” candidate for Congress. Since TA first identified this issue some weeks ago, The Point website has been updated and revised, but Seals’ biographical info has remained the same. So, who is lying?—Seals on his website regarding his current job status, or The Point by disavowing Seals’ current political involvement to better mesh with its profile as a “non-partisan” change agent? And, TA is still trying to figure out how this website makes any money with which to pay Seals or any of its other employees.

The other nice thing is that with Seals’ new website, we can see where Seals is going out and about in the community, rather than relying on the 10th Dems website for clues to his political appearance schedule. So far, it seems a little light to me.

Here’s one other question raised by the Seals website. Exactly what has he accomplished over the last two years that would make anyone want to vote for him? He has made a lot of position-type statements on his website, but what has he actually DONE? We know what Kirk’s accomplishments have been. Why should anyone vote for Seals other than the fact he says he’d vote differently on Iraq than Mark Kirk? I may be wrong, but I don’t think that’s going to do it.

As far as I know, Seals has not yet hit the mailboxes with mailers, or the streets with volunteers and walk pieces. Jay Footlik, on the other hand, while admittedly needing to play catch-up on name recognition, has already distributed two mailers. The first one was posted here previously, and here are a few pages from the latest one: here (pg. 2), here (pg. 3), here (pg. 4), here (pg. 5), here (pg. 6), here (pg.7) and here (pg. 8). You can also see Footlik’s walk piece here (front) and here (back). You will notice that there is still no mention of Dan Seals on any of this stuff, and Footlik can’t seem to bring himself to explain to the voters why it should be him and not Seals that receives the Dem nomination. Seal’s proxies have long since taken the gloves off and are chewing Footlik up on the blogs. Why is Footlik being coy about it? Taking the so-called high road will mean nothing if Footlik gets crushed in the primary. Seals also appears to be scooping up a few township primary endorsements, which it seems that Footlik may have already given up on, as reported by Ellen of the 10th, and many Seals zealots accuse Footlik of simply wasting valuable resources that could be better used against Kirk. But, hey, they've been out to get Footlik for months. Keep at it, guys, I'm loving this.

There have also been a few bits of innuendo thrown around lately as to Footlik's ties with Monica Lewinsky, asserting that Footlik helped get Lewinsky her famed internship that led to the near-complete downfall of an American president. TA has found no evidence of that, but Footlik was interviewed by the Office of Independent Counsel during the Lewinsky affair, and it was noted that he facilitated a meeting with President Clinton and Lewinsky at least once. For my money, however, the more interesting detail to come out of Footlik's interview was insight into his position in the Clinton White House, which seems to have been as a fairly minor foreign policy functionary, who was loath to even enter the west wing of the White House and approach the president without a darn good excuse. Read the complete interview here. But, that didn't stop Footlik from using a picture of himself and Clinton on his walk piece and using this experience as a centerpoint of his campaign. Interestingly, Footlik's pieces tout his position in the Clinton White House but don't actually cite any specific accomplishments he achieved in his time there. Is that because he essentially did nothing except occupy an office and go to lunch with Lewinsky and other fellow beltway wannabees?

We previously reported on the “own” poll conducted by the Seals’ camp that showed an overwhelming advantage in name recognition enjoyed by Seals over his primary opponent. However, while it would seem that Seals may have sacrificed a short-term positive press pop for the probability that the next poll released (perhaps by Seals, but more likely by Footlik) will show an enormous gain in name recognition by Footlik, which will give Footlik a huge momentum boost. But, so far, we have heard nothing from Footlik, and if he doesn’t do something soon, the Seals strategy of cutting Footlik’s fundraising ability out from under him may work.

Mark Kirk has been extremely busy lately, and I’ve been negligent in covering all of the great stuff he is doing in Washington and out in the community. Kirk has been all over the news talking about O’Hare security and the recent discovery that security passes were freely available to illegal immigrants. See here and here and here, just as samples. Kirk also did a recent bi-partisan press conference with Melissa Bean of the 8th District, concerning security issues and his proposals to federalize airport security. TA hears that this absolutely drove Dan Seals’ team nuts, as he believes that Bean should be supporting him exclusively, and not working with the opposition (i.e., Kirk), regardless of the fact that both legislators are teaming up to actually accomplish things. So much for supporting good government. Look for more of this Kirk/Bean cooperation to come, as it seems to be working well. Kirk also was at the front of a recent bi-partisan letter signed by 188 members of Congress expressing concern over the planned sale of arms to Saudi Arabia to ensure that such arms did not fall into the hands of the enemies of Israel. Kirk also uncovered U.S. aid dollars being used to fund and train Iranian-backed terrorists as a result of an audit.

We also note that Bean has not endorsed Seals, as far as I can tell, although the Terry Link cabal came out almost immediately in favor of Seals, as well as Jan Schakowski (and her felonious husband Bob Creamer), whom by many accounts is the person who recruited Seals in the first place. Given Link's current troubles, as detailed here at Team America over the last week, this may be more of a negative as things continue to unfold on the Link debacle. [Interestingly, Eddie Washington is listed on the Seals endorsement list, but that came out before Washington got thrown off the Dem establishment bus by Link & Co. (read more here) and faces county board member Angelo Kyle in the primary. Wonder how Washington feels about Seals now? And, it's also fair to ask if Seals is endorsing Washington, or has abandoned him for Kyle because Terry Link told him to. How 'bout it, Dan?]

The other interesting tidbit from the afore-mentioned Seals poll was that Seals’ own polling data gave Kirk a 36% favorable rating (vs. 33% unfavorable) among likely Democratic primary voters. THAT is bad news for Seals, as Seals first and foremost needs to cover his own Democratic base, many of whom are ticket splitters and have traditionally voted Kirk’s way over the past six years.

There's more, but this is getting long, and it's time to start talking turkey (literally).

Thanks for reading and Happy Thanksgiving!!!