A new development in endless campaign speculation over the past few years has been the spotting of domain names, which tend to be bought by prospective campaigns and held in reserve for a period of time before the campaign is announced.
For instance, someone spotted the fact that www.jodirell.com has been reserved, although for some reason WHOIS won't tell us who, exactly, bought it. However, we do have our suspicions, and it's yet another piece of evidence that Governor Rell is planning to run next year.
If we needed any more convincing that Kevin Sullivan is going to run for governor next year, check out the WHOIS listing for www.sullivan2006.com. Yep, that's him. We should expect an announcement any day now.
Now, the really interesting one is www.blumenthal2006.com, which appears to have been recently reserved. WHOIS has no information at all about this domain, so it could be anybody setting this up. Even if Blumenthal or his staff have purchased this domain, the name itself unhelpfully tells us nothing about what, exactly, he's running for next year. Governor? Senator? Attorney General? Dogcatcher?
Blumenthal playing coy is starting to wear thin, and he's fast coming up on the point where he'll either need to fish or cut bait if he wants to be competitive in the money race. Unfortunately, he has no attractive options open to him now. The Senate seat he's rumored to want isn't open (and won't be for a while), there's an incumbent governor with good poll numbers who seems to be gunning for him and staying as attorney general will essentially doom him to obscurity as Democrats throw their hands up in disgust.
In the meantime, the domain-name spotting will continue.
update
Apparently, I'm wrong, wrong, wrong about jodirell.com and blumenthal2006.com. Thanks to Aldon for checking a useful Whois server to get more information.
15 comments:
"Who is"
Blumenthal will not run. He is extremely risk-averse and only wants to take on a fight he can win. (He might beat Rell, but it would be a toss up).
Clinton wanted to nominate Blumenthal to the federal appeals court back in the late 1990's, but Jesse Helms blocked the idea before it started. So Blumenthal's best hope for other office at this point is a US Senate opening....although I agree Democrats are getting frustrated with him, and he will likely face primary opposition for such a seat.
Either way, he is running for AG this year is my guess.
WHOIS is a protocol defined in the early days of the Internet for listing 'that provides netwide directory service to internet users'.
Check out RFC 954 for a definition of the protocol.
Over the years, it has evolved, but it remains the best source of information about who has registered a domain.
Well, it's the best FREE way to get information like that... there's a Dialog subscription database called "Domain Names" that I once had access to (but do no longer) that provided much more information. I've been wishing for access again lately.
As for Blumenthal and the Senate... neither Dodd nor Lieberman seem close to retirement or running for something else, so he's out of luck there.
He lives in Greenwich--I wonder why his name has never been floated to run against Shays?
Why reserve a domain? If Blumenthal's running for Attorney General he wouldn't need a site, no Senate position is opening, so it's a likely sign that he is seriously considering the Governor's race.
Blumenthal's timing would probably depend on Rell, she has yet to announce or raise any money, so Blumenthal's under no pressure from her. The current declared candidates appearence in the UConn Polls has been marginal, their fundraising is just money and they are sniping at each other instead of focusing on Rell's preformance.
Blumenthal should stay out until Rell begins, but shouldn't let her get to far ahead.
Added details. According to whois.sc, which I believe to be the best WHOIS server, the domain was register back in 2003 by Justin Kronholm of Chester, CT. Further searches show Justin as 'executive assistant, Office of the Attorney General'.
So, it looks like this was reserved a long time ago.
It is also worth noting that JodiRell.com was registered back in 1998 and her registration is set to expire in December.
Hm, I just noticed that. That WHOIS server is very, very useful.
According to archive.org, that domain has had a "coming soon" message up on it since at least 2001. Blumenthal2006 has been around since at least 2004. So much for "recent."
That brings up some new questions, assuming that these aren't just random people speculating in domain names. Why would Rell register a domain name in 1998? We know she was exploring a run for governor in 2002 before Rowland declared his candidacy--was she thinking of it back then? Did that site refer people to the Rowland site in 2002?
The only reason the have registered these domain names, is to reserve for future use and I've only seen site for Governor or Congress.
In 1998 Rell was looking for higher office, she later raised money for Governor, but backed away when Rowland indicated his plans for the 2002 election. So she's had an interest for some time.
Blumenthal has never shown and interest in running during the past three elections for Governor or Congress. This decision in 2003, is interesting because it was before Rowland's problems came to light.
FrankS, you need to get out more. I've been tracking websites for candidates for some time. (Okay, maybe I'm the person that needs to get out more.)
I've seen sites for County Commissioners, school boards, judges, even county coroners. When my wife ran for State Rep in Connecticut, she had a website.
Most of the Secretary of State candidates have websites. They are listed in my blog post about the Secretary of State Forum.
I'm not suggesting that Rell or Blumenthal should be running for a lower office (although I am tempted to suggest that).
I'm also not sure that January of 2003 was 'before Rowland's problems came to light.' I thought people were talking about Rowland's problems before the 2002 election.
Purchasing a domain name is almost de rigueur these days. Remember the infamous whitehouse.com site? Registering and parking pertinent names is a relatively inexpensive way for public figures to protect themselves.
Sorry, that should have been de rigueur where the quasi-slashdot resides in my last comment. Apparently the italic HTML tags chewed up the text.
Don't worry about Dick,
He's been talking to plenty of people but has put them off until after the NCLB and BRAC hearing which happened today.
He's bright,careful and loved and more importantly his brand is INTEGRITY.
He can have ANY position he wants and is under no pressure yet to choose. That's a pretty good position to be in if you ask me.
Anonymous,
That was his position five years ago. Now? People are wondering whether he'll ever do anything at all.
I disagree with the synopsis offered in this post. Attourney General is, and always will be, an excellent springboard from which to launch any campaign. If done well, it is virtually impossible to anger people -- there isn't alot of controversy involved. This has been observed by Bill Clinton and Robert Kennedy, as well as many others. Blumenthal will NOT fade into obscurity if he does not run this cycle, that much is for sure. In addition, his family owns the Empire State Building, so as for having difficulty raising money, well, he'll have no problem. Finally, we are ALL forgetting that Dick said he wouldn't announce until the end of the summer, which seems like a reasonable assessment at this point.
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