Galligan domain names taken in Jeffersonville mayoral campaign

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There will be a lot more of this type thing to come in the next 1.5 years...On a national level.

Published March 02, 2007 12:53 pm - Three Internet domain names that could be appropriate for Jeffersonville mayoral candidate Tom Galligan have been tied up by the city’s information technology director, who is helping with the re-election campaign of Mayor Rob Waiz.

Galligan domain names taken in Jeffersonville mayoral campaign


By LARRY THOMAS
Larry.Thomas at newsandtribune .com

Three Internet domain names that could be appropriate for Jeffersonville mayoral candidate Tom Galligan have been tied up by the city’s information technology director, who is helping with the re-election campaign of Mayor Rob Waiz.

Galligan is challenging Waiz in the Democratic primary on May 8. Four years ago, Waiz beat Galligan, who was then a two-term incumbent, by 479 votes out of more than 4,300 cast in a four-way race.

The Web addresses — tomgalliganformayor.com- galliganformayor .com and tomgalligan .com— were reserved by city of Jeffersonville IT director Roger Hardy on Nov. 3, 2006, through the Herndon, Va., company Network Solutions LLC. The registrations expire on Nov. 3, three days before the general election.

“I’m very disappointed,” Galligan said. “It’s a little childish. The thing that got me is when he took my name.”

The winner of the primary race between Galligan and Waiz will face Republican County Councilman Monty Snelling in the Nov. 6 general election.

Hardy, who was hired as the city’s IT director last year following the death of Rich Davis, referred a reporter’s call about the Galligan domain names to Les Merkley, who serves as Waiz’s city attorney and unofficial campaign manager.

“It’s a purely defensive tactic by the Waiz campaign,” said Merkley, adding that the campaign has not decided how it will use the domain names during the next nine months. “If the Galligan campaign wants one of the domain names, we’d give it to them” for what it cost Waiz to reserve the names.

Galligan said he already has a domain name — galligangetsitdone. com— and that his Web site will be available soon.

Merkley added, “This is not the first campaign that has done this. It’s a fairly common practice in a lot of campaigns. We did it four years ago.”

Galligan said he is considering filing a complaint with the Jeffersonville Ethics Commission to determine whether Hardy’s work on Waiz’s campaign violates the city’s ethics ordinance. Hardy’s work on Waiz’s re-election bid would only violate the ethics law if he were forced to do the work or if the work were being done on city time or with city equipment. Merkley said Hardy is working for Waiz’s campaign voluntarily and that all of the campaign-related service has been done in accordance with the ethics law.

Hardy also maintains Waiz’s campaign Web site.

“I think (Hardy) was a victim of circumstance,” said Galligan, adding that he believes there is a possibility that Hardy is helping Waiz’s campaign because Hardy fears losing his $61,000-a-year job with the city.

Galligan said he learned only Tuesday that Hardy reserved the domain names and that he has not spoken with an attorney about the possibility of legal action outside the potential ethics complaint.

In 1999, President Bill Clinton signed the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, a civil law designed to prevent the misuse of domain names, but the law seems to be geared toward preventing the registration of domain names for the purpose of extorting money from or harming the reputations of businesses or celebrities. Violations of the law include fines of $1,000 to $100,000 per domain name infraction.

“Maybe I need to pursue that to prove a point,” Galligan said.