MADISON, WI — Two notes to politicians:1) Seriously, guys, it’s time to catch up with the cyber age, regardless your own age. Statistics indicate that 14 years after the internet became a bona fide phenomenon, most of your constituents are Web savvy, so why aren’t you?
2) If you insist on lagging behind the rest of us, don’t expect sympathy when your intentionally anachronistic butt suffers the inevitable.
The latest elected official to be embarrassed by his lack of cyber-savvy is Wisconsin Secretary of State Doug La Follette, 69. After winning his race in 2006, La Follette stopped paying the $25 monthly hosting fee to maintain his campaign website. He also neglected to renew the domain registration. According to Milwaukee Journal Sentinel columnist Dan Bice, La Follette figured he’d renew the domain registration when he got ready to begin campaigning for the 2010 election.
Not unpredictably, the moment the registrar released the expired domain, a cyber-entrepreneur in St. Petersburg, Russia, bought it and leased the cyber real estate to a porn company.
“It’s very obnoxious,” LaFollette told WISC-TV. “I was disgusted to learn that anybody can do this.”
La Follette said he wasn’t sure how to handle the unexpected turn of events. The domain’s new owner, Serkov Andrey, did not appear to be as thrown for a loop. He offered to sell the URL to La Follette for about $500, which—all things considered—is a steal in today’s market.
La Follette doesn’t find the price a bargain. He told the Journal Sentinel he will set up a new campaign website at a different URL.
