At least two statements made on Mike Lake’s website are downright untrue, and a bunch more seem to be exaggerations of his accomplishments.
According to his “fun facts” section, he has run the Boston Marathon four times. But he hasn’t ever run it, according to the Boston Athletic Association.
Marathon finishers from 2001-2013 are listed on the BAA’s website. 2014 is a separate link. Search for Lake and guess what… No Mike Lake!
Athlinks.com has results going back to 1998. Again no Mike Lake.
Minimum qualifying age is 18 on race day. Since Lake was born June 13, 1978, he could not have run it any time prior to 1997.
According to his fun facts section, he once gave a TED Talk in Capetown, South Africa. But not according to TED.
TED’s website allows you to search for any talk that’s been given, except the most recent ones. It’s not there. I called TED at the number listed on their site to see if maybe it just hadn’t been posted. Still no TED talk.
In the fun facts section, Lake claims he was “the youngest bank examiner for the Boston Federal Reserve Bank”. But elsewhere on his own website, he says he was only an associate bank examiner. A little title inflation may not seem like a big deal. But do we want a Lieutenant Governor who’s going to walk around claiming he’s Governor?
In the Fast Facts section (the link right above, not the same as Fun Facts), Lake touts his membership on several boards (in fun facts he says he’s on 17 total but doesn’t list them all, so I can only fact check the few that he does). In my mind, and I think in the mind of most people, that implies boards of directors. Some of these are legitimate boards of directors, but some appear to be lists of donors, and nothing more. Check out Fenway Community Health Center’s Board of Visitors, which has over 200 members! The board of directors only has 26, and Lake isn’t one of them.
Back in Fun Facts, he says he’s the only person ever in Massachusetts history to graduate with five majors. Maybe it’s true, maybe not. But does he have any evidence of that, or does he just go around saying it because he’s the only person he knows who did it?
This is all from just one day of looking around. So what else is he fibbing about?
sco says
I couldn’t find a video, but here’s his powerpoint deck. Here’s a picture of him (24 of 30) from the TEDx Stellebosch website. Here are blog posts refrencing Mike Lake at TEDx Stellenbosch.
seamusromney says
See: https://www.ted.com/about/programs-initiatives/tedx-program
SomervilleTom says
This is bullshit.
sco says
As sure as a square is a rectangle. It’s not Mike’s fault that TED is diluting their brand.
David says
I’ll agree with Seamus on this. There really is a difference between a TEDx talk and a TED talk. Yes, TED probably should do a better job of differentiating the two … still, it does matter. I’ve asked the Lake campaign for clarification on both these issues.
seamusromney says
It’s like saying you went to Harvard when all you did was take a summer class there.
SomervilleTom says
If you took a summer class at Harvard, you went to Harvard. Summer sessions at every accredited university result in just as many credits as any other semester.
This whole thing is a swiftboat attack, and these responses are simple trolling.
Bob Neer says
A real TED talk is a TED talk. A TEDx talk is just like taking a Harvard summer school course and saying you went to Harvard.
SomervilleTom says
I suggest that seamusromney edit the post to remove the clearly false allegations pertaining to TED. In view of that clear distortion, I suggest that editors might suppress this post until the other allegations are either removed or substantiated.
I hate to see BMG used as vehicle for swift-boating any candidate.
Bob Neer says
See above.
jconway says
If the oppo research is posting last minute smears like this. Judge the candidates on their merits. Cheung didn’t lie about his past, Lake
isn’t lying about his.
seamusromney says
The evidence is above. If you want to defend him, provide proof I’m wrong.
SomervilleTom says
The burden of proof is on you, and your lies fail to fulfill it.
seamusromney says
I’ve presented evidence. You can try to rebut it, but you can’t pretend it doesn’t exist.
JimC says
Saying you ran four marathons would normally be laughable, but in light of the marathon attack and its aftermath, it’s downright immoral to lie about that (well, slightly more immoral than normal lying).
In the interest of due diligence, though … someone ought to search on charity runners. Maybe some charity teams don’t list every member? I have no idea.
sco says
There’s this picture of Mike clearly crossing the Boston Marathon finish line on his website. It is unclear what year it was (certainly not 2013, since the time is after 4:09.43). I was unsuccessful, however, searching for Mike via his apparent bib number of 10676 in any year.
seamusromney says
That doesn’t even look like Mike Lake. And that bib number was assigned to someone else every year. Clearly not him, unless he stole someone else’s.
sco says
He’s even wearing a shirt that says “IKE LAKE” on it.
That said, the bib number question is valid. If he did indeed run four times, there should be some record of it somewhere.
Christopher says
You cite a list of finishers, though Mike is certainly in the kind of shape that it’s possible. Besides, why lie about something like that? Does he really think he would get more votes for running a marathon?
SomervilleTom says
I’ve seen enough from SCO — and the followups from seamusromney — to persuade me that this is nothing but a Swiftboat move.
This post should be removed by the editors.
David says
The Boston Marathon question is a legitimate one, given several people’s (including sco’s) inability to find any record of Lake finishing the Marathon in any year. And as I noted upthread, I do think there’s a difference between a TED and a TEDx talk. As I said, I’ve asked the campaign for clarification on both points, and I’ll update as necessary.
Bob Neer says
The Marathon has official lists of finishers. If Lake didn’t officially run it four times, he shouldn’t say that he did. That’s rubbishy puffery, unless he actually did it.
JimC says
n/t
JimC says
There’s clearly a difference, but I can probably forgive a TEDxer for saying they gave a TED talk.
Also … the bloom is really off the TED rose, in my opinion.
michaelhoran says
Maura Healey CLAIMS she was a starting point guard, but I haven’t seen anything myself to substantiate that. Yeah, I saw the “photo”–frankly, it doesn’t look ANYTHING like her. Hmmm. Credibility gap there, doncha think? Senator Markey CLAIMS he sold ice cream as a kid, but I don’t recall seeing him doing that–so what else might he fibbing about?
This terrific stuff, Seamus, and I genuinely appreciate you taking a day off from work to compile this dossier. I had planned to vote for Mike, but the mindblowing scandalous revelation in re TED v Tedx is more than I can swallow. Seamus, help me out here: assuming you’ve devoted equal time to the other candidates–you have, right?–which one passed your smell test? And when will you be posting your equally incisive analyses of all the other candidates’ statements? I’ll be frantically checking BMG right up to the moment I cast my vote.
David says
I’m genuinely curious about the Boston Marathon claim – not because I care at all whether a candidate can run a Marathon, but because I care about candidates being honest. Fact is, that photo on Lake’s website of him finishing the Marathon appears to show a bib number that, according to the official records, was worn by someone else in the 2014 race. (Search it yourself.) I’d love to know why. I’ve asked the campaign and will update if/when I hear back.
michaelhoran says
And to be honest, I find the “fun facts” to be a little offputting–a charmed life, to be sure, but I’m just as impressed by a candidate who says “I’ve spent the past twenty years working the assembly line.” Make that more impressed. Classic overachievment isn’t a turn-on for every voter, and these days, the Scott Brown rags-to-riches story tends, I think, to be more compelling. And that the only nice thing I’m ever going to ever say about Mr Whatever.
But if you’re going do a convention-eve hatchet job, you ought to do a workmanlike job. Ending with
is not an example of due diligence–it’s innuendo of the lowest kind. Those records ARE susceptibe to fact checking, and it’s up to the hatchet-man to check them before just flinging stuff like that around.
kevin-mentzer says
the list is so overwhelming that I question whether he can focus on the job at hand. I wonder how he can do anything well being spread so thin.
Christopher says
It keeps things a little lighter, as long as it is not a substitute for policy. Then again, it is the LG race so you have to get a little creative.
sco says
I’m not sure it’s even implied that the picture is from this year. Bib style appears to be 1999 or earlier, which explains why the number is not listed at the baa site.
merrimackguy says
He claims to have graduated from Northeastern with 5 majors. Not sure how or why you want to that, or even if that really means anything.
fenway49 says
hasn’t been on the top of the bib since 2003 or so. Adidas is on the bib these days. It wouldn’t be 2014.
The photo’s pretty clearly Mike Lake but I’d guess it was closer to his college days.
stomv says
The bib in the image on Lake’s website appears to match the logo and format in the 1998 Boston marathon
There may well be other years with a nearly identical logo, but this does suggest that Lake could have run the 1998 marathon. He would have been 19 3/4 years old, so entirely plausible.
scout says
I want to like Lake, and voted for him for auditor in the primary last time, but the claim about the degrees has always bothered me. It’s totally unverifiable unless you have complete access to the records to every college in Mass history (including ones that no longer exist)- which is a practical impossibility. Not to mention, who really cares about college major except recent college grads? It’s always struck me as weird claim to make.
The Ted vs. TedX thing, I would give a pass on. But, if he can’t prove conclusively that he ran the marathon 4 times…the Lake for gov campaign is over.
scout says
…the Lake for lt. gov campaign.
striker57 says
Lake’s number is surprising only because he has run statewide already -you would expect higher name recognition at the very least.
Further evidence that the Convention does not reflect the voting public’s interest or perception of races.
striker57 says
This is not the first time Mike Lake’s description of his resume has been challenged. I find myself agreeing with David Bernstein in his 2010 column about questions around Lake’s claims:
http://blog.thephoenix.com/blogs/talkingpolitics/archive/2010/03/24/anything-fishy-in-lake-s-bio.aspx#ixzz0jCHsLsDH
While I support another candidate for LG (Leland Cheung), I find Mike Lake to be a smart and energetic candidate. I think he overcompensates for being younger buy puffing the creds a bit – a flaw but by no means a fatal one.
striker57 says
typo alert
merrimackguy says
If you google “Mike Lake” 5K (or any other distance) his name never comes up except for a Northeastern 5K that appears to be him.
I tried my own name and I come up numerous times and I’m not even that serious a runner.
So apparently he got all the way to running marathons without ever having a bib in any other (except that one) race.
merrimackguy says
From his bio on NOAH
He was a Northeastern co-op student in these two positions.
Leland Cheung says
I think posts like this, hours before the convention amount to swift boating.
Lets all focus on the real issues. This is not how Democrats should campaign.
merrimackguy says
as well as your BA and BS from Stanford compete with FIVE majors from Northeastern?
stomv says
Maybe it’s because I feel grouchy, but that is funny.
Christopher says
It’s great to see one candidate coming to the defense of a competitor in the same race!
merrimackguy says
I couldn’t find anything in any of his bios.
Christopher says
…does that make him a Kenyan? I want to see his birth certificate right next to the President’s:)
Bob Neer says
The Swift Boat attacks were (a) demonstrably false, and (b) presented a long time before the votes. In this case, claiming that one gave a “TED talk” when all that one actually did was give a TEDx talk, which is a very different thing, is both factually accurate and might be relevant to a voter. Similarly, claiming that one ran the marathon four times when the records don’t include ones name — I’ll take Seamus’ word on that one, just like I’d take the word of most BMG commenters — is a very relevant issue. Once Lake shows his name on the finishers lists for four marathons we can move on. Swiftboating would be to drag the issue up again and again after it had been proved inaccurate.
kirth says
Swiftboating would be saying “Sure he ran four Marathons, but he didn’t deserve to finish, because they flattened the hills out just for him.” Or something equally ridiculous. The Swift Asses actually claimed Kerry’s medals, including three Purple Hearts were unearned. It was a very scurrilous attack at a disgusting new level of partisan character assassination. These allegaions about TED talks and Marathons – even if false – do not even remotely fall to that level.
JimC says
Just wondering.
JimC says
Separate diary maybe? I feel like sufficient doubts have been raised, at least about the marathons.
David says
Which I thought was disappointing.