Dan Seals, perennial Democratic candidate for Mark Kirk's old Congressional seat in the 10th District, has been campaigning for this job for a long time. Years, in fact. As regular TA readers know well, he's now in his third campaign, having lost twice.
Besides being a full-time campaigner, he doesn't have much to show as to his community involvement, he doesn't live in the District, and he has a wonderful background of resume puffing and campaign gaffs. But what he does have is a few newspaper endorsements. That is, endorsements from prior campaigns, specifically primaries.
Dan isn't running against any of the people for which he received newspaper endorsements in past elections, like Julie Hamos or Jay Footlik, anymore. But you wouldn't know it from his website.
Dan's current opponent is Republican business owner Bob Dold. No endorsements have obviously been made in the head-to-head race between Dold and Seals. Those usually don't come until much closer to the election, after the big issues have been solidified, the debates have occured, most of the campaign speeches and appearances have been made, and most importantly, newspaper editors sit down with candidates and grill them on the issues. Then they make an endorsement, and it's always big news.
Like I said, Dan got some endorsements from some major papers like the Daily Herald, but never against his GOP opponent, which has always been Mark Kirk, until this cycle. He's certainly never gotten one over Bob Dold, because the time is not yet ripe.
But you would not know that from Seals' website. I just caught a screen shot of his scrolling pictures on his site not more than 20 minutes ago. And what do we see?
As in the picture above, an endorsement from the Daily Herald, touted as if it's current. No date given. But if one takes the time to backtrack this endorsement, it's easy to find out that it's from over six months ago, January 6, 2010. Not only that, as we noted at the time, it was in fact a pretty tepid endorsement, the full quote of which was
Hamos led the recent effort to bail out mass transit, in part by securing a sales tax increase. Seals seems more worried about federal spending and spiraling debt. In a very close call, we give the edge to Seals for his concern for cutting spending and our belief that he may be more independent and, therefore, a better fit for the 10th District.
Does anyone now care what the Daily Herald thought about the Hamos-Seals primary matchup six months ago?
The critical point is, though, that one would think by simply looking at Seals' website, that the quote given is current, or at least, against Seals' current opponent, Bob Dold. That's obviously not true, but Seals is clearly counting on the notion that most casual visitors to his website aren't going to dig any deeper.
So, what is this? Lying? Embellishment? Whatever it is, it's not the whole truth. And it's something we've criticized Seals for before.
When will the lies and misrepresentations with this guy end? Oh, yeah. November.
But don't rule out a fourth bite at the 10th District apple for Seals, even after he loses this round to Dold. It appears he simply has nothing better to do.
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12 comments:
My bet, TA, is that Gill, Nyberg, CC, the Madame and all those on that other Blog will not see a damn thing wrong in what you've shown on the Seal's website. Misleading? Misreprsenting today? Give me a break. It's the game played only by their rules. Wonder what Carl will write about this one. Thanks for making me laugh, TA. You're most likely right in thinking that Seals will continue to run in the 10th as long as he can. With nothing else to do, why not.
Dear Mr. Falbe,
As an attorney, you job description involves an analysis of the FACTS. This post of yours is nothing more than a pathetic attempt to turn the story away from Mr. Kirk's embellishments ("misremember"-ings) and the fact that Dold met with Tea Party advocates and casually ignored his stance on abortion.
If you go to Dan Seals website, which it appears that you must from time to time do, you will find endorsements for the 2010 general election.(http://dansealsforcongress.com/endorsements) Notice what isn't there??? The endorsement that you site in this article. I believe it is you who are attempting to deceive the voters sir, not Mr. Seals.
In fact, the endorsement you site is part of a montage of clips from past and present campaigns on the home page. In no way does Seals actually claim to be endorsed by the Herald for the 2010 general, it is simply a reminder that he has been endorsed by them in the past.
Come on TA, maybe your misleading rhetoric worked at the Augustana Young Republicans Club, but this is real world.
Kirk's lies:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2010/06/navy-alerted-kirk-to-media-inq.html
Dold Casually Ignores Stance on Social Issues, pandering much?
http://www.teapartypalatine.com/apps/calendar/showEvent?calID=2951776&eventID=67267195)
Until Next Time,
A Concerned Colonial
Um, CC, as an attorney, my job also involves analyzing arguments logically. Your argument fails, miserably.
First, today we're talking about the 10th Congressional District race, not the U.S. Senate race. This is about Dold-Seals, not Kirk-Giannoulias. So, no we're not trying to distract, but rather raising a point about Seals that, by the way, we've raised in the past. The "distraction" is actually what you are trying to do.
Of course, like many Dems, you probably think that because George W. Bush invaded Iraq and you don't agree with that decision (whether you call it based on lies, immoral, or all of the above and more), that gives all Dems a free pass forever because Bush was... well, Bush. That seems to be what your Kirk-Seals argument is. Again, fail.
Finally, just because Seals doesn't claim false endorsements on every page of his website, doesn't mean that when he does, we should ignore it. Why is the picture (which is way more prominent than klicking through to some list) there if we are not supposed to read it? And what's the relevance and the point now, if readers are not supposed to think it's a current endorsement? Especially that particular quote - which is not something generic like "he's a smart guy" or "he wears great cologne" -- but something specific to the 10th District race, and the Herald's position on who the better candidate is. Fail.
You say "in no way" is Seals trying to claim its a current endorsement. By having that particular quote, with no disclaimer that the Herald was comparing Seals to Hamos as being "more independent" rather than a being a comparison to Dold, that's exactly what he's doing.
Fail, fail, fail.
I don't know what you do for a living, CC, but better forget about trying law school.
BTW, I have no problem with you using my real name, considering every time the Daily Herald personally quotes me, I like to link to the article here at Team America. As someone once said, say anything you want about me, just spell my name right.
TA,
What are you doing? Bob still has the Trib primary endorsement up on his website (see block 4). Delete this new blog Team America section please...yikes!
C'mon. Support Dold. Focus on the bus!!!
Anon, here is the page I think you are referring to from Dold. There's nothing wrong with referencing an endorsement as long as you make it clear what the context is. Dold gives the date of the endorsement, and more importantly, the entire text, which makes it clear it's from January.
If Seals had done that, it would not be an issue.
Anon, I should also add that on the Dold site, the Trib endorsement is found in chronological order in the middle of all of the press announcements he has had since starting the campaign. No one looking at the Dold site would be lead to believe that the Herald has endorsed Dold over Seals the way you are led to believe so by looking at the Seals site.
TA,
We are on the same team...no pun intended. This is not where we need to be going...but, it is your blog sir. This is not a winning thread for us. Objective.
Bus - Bus - Bus
TA-
I'm not going to post a long-winded response, in part because its not necessary. But TA, your fellow Republican would agree with me in saying that your attack against Seals is pretty unfounded, especially considering Dold as a newspaper endorsement from the primaries still posted. Just as Dold never explicitly states that this Trib endorsement is from the primaries, neither does Seals. For the record, you are also wrong in saying that you can distinguish its from January. Well, "Chicago Tribune Endorses Robert Dold" with a little text at the bottom gives us nothing. Simply put, you're wrong.
If you want to talk issues, let's talk issues. If you want to talk resume, let's talk resume. But to attack Seals on something that your candidate is also doing seems a bit short sighted. Maybe you "misremembered" Dold's website?
Until Next Time,
A Concerned Colonial
BTW, I just stick to calling you TA, no need to make things personal.
CC- thanks for your comment, but I'm not buying it. Almost EVERY candidate nowadays has a website that lists endorsements and other news articles from as far back as whenever. That's not the issue. And clearly if Seals had had a reference to the Herald endorsement in the same manner that Dold has on his website, I would not have made an issue of it.
I can't see how you can say with a straight face that the way Seals refers to the endorsment and the way Dold does are equivalent. They are not. Seals is trying to unfairly mislead people into thinking he has the endorsement of the Herald over Dold. He does not.
If Seals wanted to run a screen shot with the endorsement, and had included the entire article, I would have been fine. I might even have been OK if the date had been attached, although you still have to assume that the average voter will understand that it was a prior endorsement. But the way Seals does it, and has done it in the past (he pulled the same stunt while campaigning against Hamos), crosses the line.
My opinion friend. But it's my blog. I gave you your say. We can move on to the next bone-headed campaign stunt Seals pulls. It won't be a long wait.
And you DID use a name in your comment. So that's why I said what I said.
http://img203.imageshack.us/img203/2310/doldhomepage.png
This is Sooooo different than Seal's site
Team... face it you got up to bat. Took a swing and missed. Stop before you embararass yourself further.
Oh look over there -- it's Haley's comet!
Nice try in diverting attention from all the Kirk crap. Too bad the national press is now picking up on it. Hell, Kirk even made it into Newsweek -- under losers of the week.
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