Hoekstra Opponents Register PeteHoekstra.com

PeteHoekstra.com
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

Opponents of Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-MI), the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee and a candidate for governor in his home state, have snatched up PeteHoekstra.com — which Hoekstra apparently never bothered to register — and filled it with posts attacking the congressman.

The registrants have registered the site through Domains By Proxy, a service that keeps registrants’ names out of whois searches.

TPM was not able to learn the identity of the registrant, but did have an email exchange with three people who purported to be the registrants, via the email address listed on the site: info@petehoekstra.com. (The emails in response came from the email address notpetehoekstra@gmail.)

The purported registrants told TPM three people teamed up to register the site. They said they knew the domain name was open, but didn’t move to buy it until Dec. 30. That was the day after Hoekstra sent out a letter using the foiled Christmas Day terrorist attack to raise money for his gubernatorial campaign.

They told TPM the letter was the “final nail in the coffin for us,” adding, “Anyone whose judgment is so poor and distasteful as to attempt to generate personal gain when hundreds of people could have died, should not be in elected office.”

In many of the site’s posts, the authors attack Hoekstra for not registering the domain. To wit:

To insinuate that Obama is releasing hard-core terrorists from Gitmo is such fear-mongering crap…but what do you expect from a guy who DIDN’T EVEN THINK TO REGISTER HIS OWN .com NAME?!

The owners claim they’re not affiliated with any party or political organization, and say they don’t yet have funding, or plans to raise funds.

“I suppose we will consider accepting direct advertisements from Michigan gubernatorial candidates or other groups wanting to reach this audience. Heck, Pete Hoesktra may want to buy an ad, himself!” they wrote. “That said, if we take money, it could pollute our efforts — just like lobbyists damaging health care reform. So, we’ll have to think about the financial side.”

The site crashed briefly Monday due to a surge in traffic, they said.

Hoekstra’s staff did not respond to requests for comment. Hoekstra does have a campaign web site, HoekstraForGovernor.com.

Latest News
Comments
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Associate Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: