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Dec
12
I really wanted to title this post, “Who needs ‘Dirty Tricks for Dummies‘ Now?” but that is just too not nice for me.
I’m still verifying, but Mayor Tom O’Grady or someone who appears to be speaking (well, writing) for him left a comment on WLST.
I traced the www.ogrady08.com domain back and it appears that it was reserved on 11/30/07 by Frank O’Grady of CreativeWorks Design – five days before ogradyforcongress.com was reserved by a Cimperman volunteer (more on that below).
Again – I have no horse in the OH-10 race. I know Rosemary Palmer‘s campaign manager, Anthony Fossececa, and find her to be a sincere candidate with a lot of reason to run, but I don’t live in the OH-10 and I don’t expect to be donating any money to it either.
However, for people who do care, Cleveland Free Times mentions a few other names:
TomOGradyForCongress.com, OGradyForCongress.com, and TomOGrady.com are registered to a phone number belonging to Eric Wobser, a volunteer on Cimperman’s campaign.
Wobser, incidentally, is no naïve college kid playing West Wing for a week. He’s a Cleveland Executive Fellow who was hired by Ken Silliman, Frank Jackson’s chief of staff, to serve as special assistant to the mayor last year. Farming out your staff to the candidates you want to place in power is nothing new for Cleveland mayors – Mike White perfected it in the ’90s – but they’re supposed to take an unpaid leave of absence. Wobser, however, was still on the payroll when he registered the domain names on Dec. 4. His 90-day leave of absence did not take effect until the 10th.
Wobser referred Free Times’ questions to damage-control maven Nancy Lesic. When reached Monday, Lesic stated that she and Cimperman had only learned of the incident after Free Times left messages seeking comment, and that the domain names will be offered to O’Grady without charges or conditions.
“There was a volunteer who was over exuberant,” Lesic says. “He’s a good worker. He just got carried away.”
O’Grady could not be reached for comment, but must be relieved to hear that he doesn’t have to resort to tripod.TomOGradyIsTheAwesomestCandidateEverInTheHistoryOfModernPoliticsForCongress.com/twogirlsonecup to promote his campaign.
Well, now, I guess, what we might surmise is that O’Grady couldn’t really care less, because ogrady08.com – which I think is catchy anyway – was reserved days before Wobster – and others – thought he was being so clever and reserving the other names.
I’m just a neophyte wonkabee when it comes to tracing and tracking, but if those dates are to be believed, the only thing Cimperman has to his credit is a volunteer who thinks he’s being clever but really seems to have been wasting his time. Didn’t he kind of wonder how it was that those names were even available?
Oh – O’Grady announced his candidacy on 12/6/07 – not quite a week after Frank O’Grady reserved ogrady08.com.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 10:55 pm December 12th, 2007 in Campaigning, Congress, Elections, Ohio, Politics, Scandal, Tech
Comments
4 Responses to “Ogrady08.com registered before Wobster took names w/Cimperman domain trace”
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Hello Jill,
Well reported on that one. We’ll leave amateur hour to others while we continue with our own campaign. I have stated many times that if the only way a candidate can win a campaign is through trickery, then they never deserved to be in the campaign in the first place. We will continue to run on my record and experience.
Regards,
Thomas O’Grady
Thanks for reading and commenting, Mayor. Being completely selfish, the OH-10 is a wonk’s dream come true, I think anyway. Maybe it’s just my child-like glee at watching and figuring it all out. What I most hope to see, though, is how voters react and interact, which, I hope, will be often and not silently. With so many individuals to choose from, I would hope that voters will find a choice that can really benefit them. Again, I’m not in the district but I would want for Ohioans in the 10th to have as good representation as anyone.
Good luck and thanks for taking the time.
Ok, just to put things in perspective, or else get a bit more paranoid about where we are heading, here is what one of my fellow realtors did in miami http://4realz.net/2007/12/20/realtors-compete-differently-in-miami/
Thanks, Carole. Reminds me of high school cheerleader parent stories. Oy.