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Dan Seals: Campaign Stunt Causes Massive Traffic Jam

Inconsiderate Jerk

Dan Seals, a Democratic congressional candidate from Illinois, caused a massive traffic jam on Thursday when he offered cheap gas to motorists as part of a campaign stunt.

For one hour at lunchtime, this idiot Seals offered drivers the chance to buy as many as 10 gallons of gas for only $1.85 per gallon at the Marathon station in suburban Lincolnshire. Gas was actually priced at $4.14 per gallon, but Seals said he would make up the difference out of his campaign fund.

The result? An outlandish traffic jam, stretching for a mile and a half, which remained snarled for hours. A fuming Lincolnshire Police Chief Randy Melvin described the scene:

We have cars trying to come in from every direction. We’ve probably had fist fights. Cars are lined up for at least 1.5 miles. I’d say there’s a couple hundred easy.

Chief Melvin added that no one from the Seals campaign had the courtesy to alert him about the event until just before it started. By then traffic was already a mess. Only about 50 motorists actually made it to the pumps. The rest were trapped in traffic for hours, spewing toxic fumes into the atmosphere.

What did Dan Seals have to say for himself? Instead of apologizing for the fiasco he created, he made a little campaign speech:

I knew the problem was bad … but I had no idea you’d have a line of cars like this. I think what this event illustrates is how people are hurting - how much this increase in gas year after year after year has been working into our pocketbooks.

And on his website, his campaign issued a Bush-bashing press release:

Today, cars full of 10th district drivers frustrated with high gas prices lined up for hours to fill up their tanks at $1.85/gallon, the price of gas when George W. Bush and Mark Kirk [Seals’ opponent] came to Washington in 2001.

Why?

I don’t understand any of this.

First, what was Dan Seals trying to prove? That gas is expensive? We already know that. Every American with a basic knowledge of current events knows that oil has exceeded $130 per barrel, and that gas has surpassed $4.00 per gallon in many parts of the country.

Second, where is Dan Seals’ proposal as to what we should do about the rising price of gas? His press release links his Republican opponent Mark Kirk to big oil companies (very original) and contains some boilerplate talking points about President Bush and the need to reduce dependence on foreign oil and lower gas prices, but doesn’t offer a single solution.

Third, didn’t this idiot realize that by offering to give away $22.90 to drivers at the Marathon station in suburban Lincolnshire his campaign would create a gruesome traffic jam that would snarl up the lives of everyone working, living, or visiting the area?

Finally, what’s the legality of Dan Seals’ little stunt? A candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives was giving cash away to drivers at a gas station in an attempt to win their support in the upcoming election. Isn’t there a law against purchasing votes?

Chief Melvin should have arrested Dan Seals at that gas station and thrown him in jail for disturbing the peace.