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Monday, October 31, 2005

Surfer beware: Fake Republican Party web site

Cheap domain names and Internet pranksterism have brought political dirty tricks into the information age.

The web site hamiltoncountyrepublicanparty.com tells voters to vote for Democrat Mark Mallory for mayor and a slate of Democratic candidates for municipal court judge, City Council and school board. Only in small print at the bottom does it disclose, "Not affiliated with the Hamilton County Republican Party."

"I think it's clever but dishonest," said Republican Party Executive Director Brad Greenberg. "It's an attempt to deceive the voters." The official web site of the Hamilton County Republican Party is hamiltoncountyrepublicanparty.org. (Note the dot-org domain.)

Greenberg said the party is investigating who's responsible and will file a complaint. The web site was registered through an Arizona domain name registrar Oct. 23 -- but is held in the name of a proxy, meaning the author is unknown.


UPDATE (Monday, 2:15 p.m.): The site is housed on the same web server as dealerdashboard.com, owned by Michael Dalton, a 51-year-old Forest Park Democrat. He said in an e-mail:
I have no comment for the Republican-driven press. Spend your time investigating, without a bias, and maybe you will receive some courtesy. This is a non story. Get a life and start investigated the cronyism in Hamilton County, the state, the nation. I thought Republicans were suppose to be such smart business men? Well, we learn they will lie, cry and fail to protect anything including their turf and free speech.

UPDATE (Monday, 4:56 p.m.): The web site -- perhaps the shortest-lived in the short history of local Internet activism -- is down. Republicans credit Hamilton County Democratic Party Chairman Timothy M. Burke with intervening. "I don't know what he did, but whatever it was, we appreciate it," Greenberg said. Burke confirmed that he had something to do with taking down the site, but did not elaborate.


12 Comments:

at 12:11 PM, October 31, 2005 Anonymous Anonymous said...

this is no more deceiptful than Korte's spin on the local political scene or David Peppers misleading ads.

 
at 4:33 PM, October 31, 2005 Blogger Someone said...

There is no site at that address...

 
at 7:21 PM, October 31, 2005 Anonymous Anonymous said...

You would have thought people around here would have learned their lessons after David Pepper was too stupid to buy davidpepper.org.

 
at 10:03 PM, October 31, 2005 Anonymous Anonymous said...

This is a non story. It was not endorsed, authorized, suggested by anyone other than the domain owner. It was a free expressive of speech to provide alternative options. There will be a Democratic Mayor elected. Republicans will vote. The Republican Enquire failed to mention Judgeships are non-partisan. There was a preferred slate for City Council which left plenty of room to vote for the Republican puppets. The Republican Enquire failed to mention the BOLD title "Independent Free Speech" Perhaps, Republicans feel their voters are as stupid as they are. Thanks for revealing the base site, it will be removed, just like HamiltonCountyRepublicanParty.com, out of courtesy to an individual the city should honor.

 
at 10:07 PM, October 31, 2005 Anonymous Anonymous said...

Probably more Pepper tricks considering his deceptive campaign tactics and commericails, would anyone be shocked? NO

If Time Burke wants to investigate something, why is he not investigating the pre-primary robcalls asking that voters vote for Pepper because he is the only wite candidate.

I am disturbed that after Pepper demanded an invetigation, there is none...Why?

 
at 10:35 PM, October 31, 2005 Anonymous Anonymous said...

No Reportee Korte

"Quit being such a petty know-it-all and let the real journalists do the journalism."

We don't have any real journalists, just stenographers like you.

Jayson Blair

 
at 11:26 PM, October 31, 2005 Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ditto

 
at 9:15 AM, November 01, 2005 Anonymous Anonymous said...

Michael isn't embarrassed at all. Keep up the "BS" and I'll give you really something to talk about. There was nothing bogus about the site. There was full disclosure, and full compliance. Removal was a mere courtesy to an individual that the city, county should respect immensely.

 
at 1:35 PM, November 01, 2005 Anonymous Anonymous said...

The site was called HamiltonCountyRepublicanParty.com and is.

 
at 2:56 PM, November 01, 2005 Anonymous Anonymous said...

Rope a Dope !

Where is the story now Republican Enqueer.

 
at 9:34 PM, November 01, 2005 Anonymous Anonymous said...

http://HamiltonCountyRepublicanParty.com

Is this the site, It looks up to me ?

 
at 11:23 AM, November 02, 2005 Anonymous Anonymous said...

Boy, this guy Roped the Dope "Korte" and the Republican Enqueer for playing sucker to their political party. You don't see "No Reportee" Korte questioning how a party chairman involved in "Delay" type money laundry gets nominated to be a federal judge. Oh no, they would prefer to screw the people and endorse their "kickback" judges. Have you seen their financial disclosures ? I thought the party was suppose to support the candidate, not the candidate kicking back funds to the party. Is this how they insure the Convicted "Taft" appointments ?

Anyway, "Korte" was roped faster than that Southgate, Mich "Bush" pioneer. lol

 
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