A look at www.MarkKennedy.com
I was wondering a little bit about the history of http://www.markkennedy.com and how it is now a generic forward to http://www.markkennedy06.com (one can tell this by going to markkennedy.com and clicking any link on the site, it doesn't show individual pages). So I started with the WhoIs information. The domain is registered to Gary Peterson of Willmar, MN. Then I decided to take a trip back in time on the internet, with the "wayback machine" at archive.org. There are three hits for the site, all of them holding pages. The interesting one is below. [You can see the archived page here]
So my question is about the money that Kennedy's campaign should have paid to have this domain forwarded. The price in June of 2000 -- when Kennedy first ran for Congress -- was $1,000. More than five years later, as he runs for even a higher office, we must wonder what the current market rate is for the domain. $2,000? $5,000? More? So I see two possibilities: 1) Kennedy forked over a nice chunk of change to Mr. Peterson to rent the domain via forwarding (since the campaign doesn't own the domain) or 2) Mr. Peterson paid more than $1,000 for the domain and has subsequently donated the use the domain as an in-kind contribution to the campaign. Peterson did make a $1,000 contribution to to Kennedy's Senate primary campaign already as well as $1,000 for his congressional re-election campaign in 2002. You can read more aboout Peterson's printing company here.
This all seems a little fishy, and while I don't want to make blind accusations without some backup, I think Kennedy's campaign should explain exactly what the relationship is with Mr. Peterson in regards to the campaign. Has Peterson owned it since 2000, or did he recently buy it for the campaign? Did Maracom -- a corporation -- foot the bill for acquiring the domain? Is this somehow related to the legislation that Kennedy supported that would completely open internet campaigns to soft money and corporate expenditures?
In all fairness I should note that Kennedy's campaign doesn't advertise markkennedy.com as their website, but these questions should still be answered since they definitely benefit from having it.
So my question is about the money that Kennedy's campaign should have paid to have this domain forwarded. The price in June of 2000 -- when Kennedy first ran for Congress -- was $1,000. More than five years later, as he runs for even a higher office, we must wonder what the current market rate is for the domain. $2,000? $5,000? More? So I see two possibilities: 1) Kennedy forked over a nice chunk of change to Mr. Peterson to rent the domain via forwarding (since the campaign doesn't own the domain) or 2) Mr. Peterson paid more than $1,000 for the domain and has subsequently donated the use the domain as an in-kind contribution to the campaign. Peterson did make a $1,000 contribution to to Kennedy's Senate primary campaign already as well as $1,000 for his congressional re-election campaign in 2002. You can read more aboout Peterson's printing company here.
This all seems a little fishy, and while I don't want to make blind accusations without some backup, I think Kennedy's campaign should explain exactly what the relationship is with Mr. Peterson in regards to the campaign. Has Peterson owned it since 2000, or did he recently buy it for the campaign? Did Maracom -- a corporation -- foot the bill for acquiring the domain? Is this somehow related to the legislation that Kennedy supported that would completely open internet campaigns to soft money and corporate expenditures?
In all fairness I should note that Kennedy's campaign doesn't advertise markkennedy.com as their website, but these questions should still be answered since they definitely benefit from having it.
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Interesting. I can tell you that back in June, markkennedy.com didn't forward to his senate site. It wasn't the site from 2000 though either. It's very odd that the archive doesn't have any more recent records.
You might want to check out: http://www.whois.sc/
Thay have a WHOIS history search, but you have to be a silver member ($15/month) to use it.
You might want to check out: http://www.whois.sc/
Thay have a WHOIS history search, but you have to be a silver member ($15/month) to use it.
This is Gary Peterson. I occasionally do a google search on my name and home town to see what shows up. This post showed up. Here's the history of markkennedy.com. After Mark was first elected to congress I saw that the domain name was available. Not wanting it to fall into "enemy" hands, I registered it. It just sat there for years not pointing to anything. I recently contacted the Kennedy campaign saying that I wanted to transfer the domain name to them. They didn’t want to have any appearance of receiving something of value outside the contribution reporting process. So, I had the domain registrar point any hits coming to markkennedy.com to the official Kennedy campaign site. This pointing transfer costs me $12 per year. If you want to contact the Election Commission about an apparent $12 per year unreported contribution, I’m sure they’ll send a crack team of investigators out to make things right. If you have any comments or questions, you can contact me directly gpeterson @ maracom.com.
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