Alex Robert Seith (July 27, 1934 – March 23, 2010) was the

1978 Events January * January 1 – Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes off the coast of Bombay, killing 213. * January 5 – Bülent Ecevit, of CHP, forms the new government of Turkey (42nd government). * January 6 – ...

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nominee for the

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from

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. A complete newcomer to electoral politics, he nearly pulled off one of the greatest upsets in Senate history when he narrowly lost to nationally renowned incumbent Republican Charles Percy by eight percentage points. According to Statistics of Congressional Election of November 7, 1978, (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1978) the margin of defeat was 250,000 votes. Seith went to

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

and

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class ...

. Prior to running for the Senate, Seith's political career had been limited to appointed positions, including service on a regional sanitary district board and, most notably, the Cook County Zoning Board of Appeals. Though at heart a mainstream member of the Democratic party, with associated positions on most issues, Seith's campaign emphasized his hard line positions in

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. Percy managed to salvage his office by means of a televised ''

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'' in the final week of the campaign, but Seith's campaign may have been dealt a blow some days earlier, when popular ''

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'' columnist

Mike Royko Michael Royko Jr. (September 19, 1932 – April 29, 1997) was an American newspaper columnist from Chicago. Over his 30-year career, he wrote over 7,500 daily columns for the ''Chicago Daily News'', the ''Chicago Sun-Times'', and the ''Chicago ...

informed readers that Seith had served as a

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in the trial of a

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figure some years earlier. Seith unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for Illinois' other U.S. Senate seat in

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a United States grain embargo against the Soviet Union, grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning Syst ...

, but was defeated by

Illinois Secretary of State The Secretary of State of Illinois is one of the six elected executive state offices of the government of Illinois, and one of the 47 secretaries of states in the United States. The Illinois Secretary of State keeps the state records, laws, lib ...

Alan J. Dixon, who went on to win the general election. Seith unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate in

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast As ...

, but was defeated by Congressman Paul Simon, who went on to narrowly defeat Percy in the general election. Seith later went on to co-own a number of radio stations with Thom Serafin, including WSDR/

WSSQ WSSQ (105.5 FM) – branded as Q105.5 – is a commercial adult contemporary radio station licensed to Sterling, Illinois, United States, serving primarily Whiteside and Lee counties in the Rock River Valley. Owned by Fletcher M. Ford, through l ...

in Sterling, Illinois. They also owned the Illinois News Network, a statewide radio network. Throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s he provided on air commentaries for WLS (Channel 7) television in Chicago, the ABC network affiliate. In his later life, Seith lived and worked in Chicago, where he was an attorney and lobbyist, specializing in real-estate law.

References

1934 births 2010 deaths Yale University alumni Harvard Law School alumni People from Cook County, Illinois Illinois Democrats {{Illinois-politician-stub