Alex Robert Seith (July 27, 1934 – March 23, 2010) was the 1978 Democratic nominee for the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

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

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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. 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 foreign policy. 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 informed readers that Seith had served as a character witness 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, 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, libr ...

Alan J. Dixon Alan John Dixon (July 7, 1927 – July 6, 2014) was an American politician and member of the Democratic Party who served in the Illinois General Assembly from 1951 to 1971, as the Illinois Treasurer from 1971 to 1977, as the Illinois Secretary ...

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

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, 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 WSDR (1240 AM) is an American radio station licensed to serve the community of Sterling, Illinois. The station is owned by Fletcher M. Ford and the broadcast license is held by Virden Broadcasting Corp. WSDR broadcasts a news/talk radio format t ...

/ WSSQ 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