Reichert aide buys up other candidate's Web domain name as joke

By Warren Cornwall
Seattle Times Eastside bureau

State Sen. Luke Esser, left, is not amused by a Dave Reichert campaigner's Internet prank.

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When state Sen. Luke Esser was setting up his congressional campaign Web site, his staff was curious to learn that several Web addresses with his name were already taken.

After some detective work, they found out the Web site names were registered to Kent Patton, an employee of King County Sheriff Dave Reichert and campaigner for his boss, who is running for the same Eastside congressional seat as Esser.

Patton said this week that it was just a joke, and that Esser can have the addresses.

But Esser isn't laughing.

"It's his excuse that's a joke," Esser said. "I just don't think that's very credible."

The first political flap of the Republican campaign to replace retiring U.S. Rep. Jennifer Dunn has emerged. Call it a turf war in cyberspace.

Patton in mid-February bought three Web addresses, or domain names, containing Esser's name: lukeesserforcongress.com, lukeesserforcongress.org and lukeesser.org.

At the time, Reichert was the only candidate who had officially entered the race, though Esser and several others were mentioned as likely candidates.

Patton insists the move was simply a well-meaning prank.

"It was my way of, when they looked up the domain names, to have them say, 'Oh my gosh, they were one step ahead.' Then they would call me and we would have a laugh about it," Patton said.
 
The Web sites yesterday had nothing about the campaign and were listed as "under construction." Patton said he plans to contact the Esser campaign and discuss how to turn the Web addresses over to Esser. Reichert could not be reached for comment yesterday.

To Esser, Patton's explanation sounded like a convenient excuse after the maneuver was uncovered. "I do have to wonder if there are more dirty tricks on the way," he said.

As evidence that he meant no harm, Patton, one of two aides to Reichert, noted that he didn't try to hide his identity when he registered the Web names.

"Luke should run on the issues. He doesn't need to make things up," he said.

Web-site registration fights have become a familiar feature of political campaigns. Candidates rush to snap up domain names that could be associated with their campaign, to keep them from falling into other people's hands.

People will buy Web names with a political opponent's name simply to make it harder for someone to find a catchy name for a campaign Web site, said Rob Patton, a Democratic Internet consultant and program director of the University of California, Santa Barbara's Center for Information Technology and Society. Others will use it to create a Web site criticizing the person named in the address.

When political campaigns first started using the Internet, one of the first things candidates asked was, "What can we do to thwart the opponent online?" said Patton, who is not related to Kent Patton.

A 1999 federal law banned profiteering from Internet domain names by registering the names of companies or individuals.

But that law isn't being used to block people from getting Web sites in the political world, said Michael Cornfield, an associate research professor at George Washington University and author of the 2004 book "Politics Moves Online." He questioned whether such Web tactics really offer much of an advantage in a political campaign.

The dispute here comes as Republicans gird themselves for a four-way primary contest in the 8th Congressional District, which includes Esser, Reichert, Diane Tebelius and Conrad Lee. Two Democrats, Alex Alben and Heidi Behrens-Benedict, also are running. The district covers much of east and south King County and east Pierce County.

State Republican Chairman Chris Vance said he hoped Kent Patton would return the domain names and the candidates could move on.

"Contested primaries mean competition, and sometimes competition means friction," he said. "This is why I hate primaries."

Warren Cornwall: 206-464-2311 or wcornwall@seattletimes.com