Talk:Blair Hull

More quality writing

In the introduction, there is a mention that he was running for a political office and leading the election until spousal problems surfaced but it doesn't even say what political office he was running for or what election it was. It just says "the primary elections" and it is also mentions this in the "Personal" section as well which doesn't make sense because that section should be for personal interests and habits, not political actions and public scandals. The spousal scandal should have its own section. The spousal scandal section should also include the fact that , in the election season within which it occoured, another running politician, Jack Ryan, suffered a similar fate at the hands of his own sex scandal [1] and with the withdraw of the Ryan and the scandal effecting Hull, Barack Obama became the frontrunner. Hull and Ryan should be linked together. BTW it was the 2004 senatorial race of Illinois. 209.162.8.244 07:17, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

United States Senate Candidacy

I reverted this edit:

• 02:40, 10 November 2011 John Nevard (talk | contribs) (→United States Senate Candidacy)

  Hull lead until Obama's campaign team spread rumors about an incident that occurred during Hull's divorce.

  citing:
  • Shipman, Tim (August 28, 2008). David Axelrod: Can the 'Axe' cut it as Barack Obama bids for US election victory? telegraph.co.uk:

    Many in Chicago still remember Obama's 2004 senate primary race, where Axelrod's man trailed millionaire Blair Hull, until the Chicago papers reported that Hull's ex-wife had filed a protection order during their divorce. Obama's team certainly pushed the story. Axelrod has always denied that it originated with him. Not everyone who was there believes him.

    apparently based on:
    
    • Wallace-Wells, Ben (April 1, 2007). Obama's narrator. The New York Times Magazine, pp. 30–35:

      Axelrod is known for operating in this gray area, part idealist, part hired muscle. It is difficult to discuss Axelrod in certain circles in Chicago without the matter of the Blair Hull divorce papers coming up. As the 2004 Senate primary neared, it was clear that it was a contest between two people: the millionaire liberal, Hull, who was leading in the polls, and Obama, who had built an impressive grass-roots campaign. About a month before the vote, The Chicago Tribune revealed, near the bottom of a long profile of Hull, that during a divorce proceeding, Hull's second wife filed for an order of protection. In the following few days, the matter erupted into a full-fledged scandal that ended up destroying the Hull campaign and handing Obama an easy primary victory. The Tribune reporter who wrote the original piece later acknowledged in print that the Obama camp had "worked aggressively behind the scenes" to push the story. But there are those in Chicago who believe that Axelrod had an even more significant role -- that he leaked the initial story. They note that before signing on with Obama, Axelrod interviewed with Hull. They also point out that Obama's TV ad campaign started at almost the same time. Axelrod swears up and down that "we had nothing to do with it" and that the campaign's television ad schedule was long planned. "An aura grows up around you, and people assume everything emanates from you," he told me.

      which was based on:
      
      • Mendell, David (June 24, 2004). Obama lets opponent do talking. Chicago Tribune, p. 1:

        In the Democratic primary, Obama found himself the overwhelming beneficiary when the campaign of former securities trader Blair Hull crashed in the aftermath of Hull's release of court files from a messy divorce. Though Obama has been a passive beneficiary of Ryan's latest problems, the Democrat's campaign worked aggressively behind the scenes to fuel controversy about Hull's filings.

But David Mendell, the reporter who covered the 2004 Illinois Democratic primary election campaign for U.S. Senate for the Chicago Tribune
and broke the story of Sexton's court order of protection against Hull in his Sunday, February 15, 2004 profile of Hull,
stated in his 2007 biography Obama: From Promise to Power that he learned about the public record of a court order of protection against Hull
from a campaign operative of Illinois Comptroller Daniel Hynes:

• Mendell, David (August 14, 2007). Obama: From Promise to Power. New York: Amistad/HarperCollins. ISBN 0060858206, p. 213:

  At about this time, I met with a Hynes operative for lunch...I was handed a folder of opposition research on Hull. Among the papers was a copy of the outside sheet of the filing of one of Hull's two divorces in Illinois...The rest of the divorce file had been sealed, and this vague court order was the only document publicly available. The order contained only one salient fact: Hull's second wife, Brenda Sexton, had once been granted an order of protection against him.
  
  Hull was nearing the 30 percent mark when I interviewed him for my Sunday profile of him and his candidacy...He steadfastly refused to discuss the circumstances of his marriages, divorces or the court order, saying they were private matters. Because he had been reluctant to explain these issues, particularly the court order, I felt compelled to include this in my profile.

  • Mendell, David (February 15, 2004). Political novice Hull uneasy in spotlight. Chicago Tribune, p. 1 (Metro):

    As his second marriage to Sexton collapsed in 1998, Sexton filed an order of protection against him, public records show. Hull won't talk about the divorce in detail, saying only that it was "contentious" and that he and Sexton are friends.

In February 2004, one month before the primary election,
after spending $24 million on months of television advertising in Chicago and downstate Illinois,
Hull enjoyed a transient lead (behind "undecided") in the polls,
which disappeared after the revelation that an ex-wife had alleged in divorce papers that he had physically and verbally abused her.

Illinois State Sen. Barack Obama surged into the lead after finally beginning television advertising in Chicago in the final three weeks of the campaign, and won the March 16, 2004 Democratic primary election by an unexpected landslide:

• Pearson, Rick (October 27, 2003). Illinois undecided on Bush challenger; Senate races also fail to produce clear front-runners. Chicago Tribune, p. 1.
• Chase, John (January 15, 2004). Senate chase remains murky; no candidates break from pack for U.S. primaries. Chicago Tribune, p. 1 (Metro).
• Chase, John (February 23, 2004). TV spots pay off in Ryan, Hull Senate bids. Chicago Tribune, p. 1.
• Pearson, Rick (March 9, 2004). Obama, Ryan out front; with week until Senate primary, Hull staggered by divorce. Chicago Tribune, p. 1.
• Mendell, David (March 17, 2004). Obama routs Democratic foes; Ryan tops crowded GOP field; Hynes, Hull fall far short across state. Chicago Tribune, p. 1

Newross (talk) 14:17, 10 November 2011 (UTC)

Divorce Papers -- Order of Protection

Okay, we don't know that Obama released the information, but shouldn't the main article reflect the damage that the revelations did to Hull's campaign?

Is that just supposed to fall into the memory hole, like it didn't happen?