NK GOP cries foul at misleading website

By Beth Bottis
September 30, 2004

NORTH KINGSTOWN- The election is just over a month away, but some candidates in town say that the politics are anything but clean.

Controversy arose last Friday afternoon when a new website began making its mark on North Kingstown's political scene.

The site, www.nkgop.com, may sound like something that belongs to the Republican Town Committee. However, one click last Friday and visitors were taken to the site of the Democratic Town Committee.

The site is actually owned by Democratic town council candidate Jonathan Bertman, who says he was certainly not trying to mislead voters.

"I bought that website along with a number of other sites, including www.nkdems.com and nkrepublicans.com," Bertman said. "I certainly have the right to buy any sites that are available."

The site now displays Bertman's own opinions about the North Kingstown Republicans.

"The North Kingstown Republicans have controlled our town council for over a decade," the site begins. "Here's what they have accomplished: Out of control property taxes; regular drinking water contaminations; no meaningful development of Quonset; a confusing and inadequate town web site..."

Bertman goes on to name what he feels are just a few examples of why the town needs a change.

Members of the Democratic Town Committee say that the party as a whole had nothing to do with the site.

"The site is not supported by the Democratic Town Committee," said John Henseler, chairman of the committee. "We had no knowledge of it prior to its posting."

Henseler says he found out about the site late Friday afternoon. He says he called Bertman as soon as he heard about the link to the Democrats' site and within minutes, he says it was removed.

Bertman says that he was contacted by GOP attorney Joseph White, who is also the vice-chairman of the NKGOP.

White says that the site could be in violation of a number of federal and state regulations, including a federal statute on anti cyber-squatting.

The term "cyber-squatting" technically means registering famous brand names as Internet domains in the hope of later selling them to the appropriate owner at a profit. According to White, law states that a person is permitted to reserve a domain name provided that the person has a bona fide purpose and the intentions are in good faith. White also said that there is a fine line between that law and upholding the First Amendment right to free speech.

"As long as you act in good faith, the two won't interfere with each other," White said. White also added that in this particular case, there might also be a "quasi-trademark" issue.

According to White, in Rhode Island, the words Republican and Democrat have been given a special preference from the Secretary of State. An entity cannot use those names without getting prior authorization from the Republican State Central Committee or the Democratic State Central Committee. White says, in this case, the term GOP is synonymous with Republican and for the NKGOP to use the term, it had to first get approval from the state central committee.

I think the bigger issue, though, is that (Bertman) wants to run for town council," White said. "It's a position that has to pass ordinances and uphold those ordinances, a fairly large responsibility. If he can't follow the laws that are already on the books, how can he hold that position?"

Current Town Councilman Anthony Miccolis, who is also running for re-election on the Republican ticket, in a letter to the editor this week called the issue "an example of dirty politics and an unfortunate attempt to confuse and mislead voters."

Mark Zaccaria, chairman of the Republican Town Committee, agreed. "I myself, and speaking for the committee, am very, very disappointed that this kind of thing should have occurred," Zaccaria said. "Do you know what a low amount of respect that shows for the voters of this town to think that they would be pulled into something that transparent?"

That wasn't the intention, though, Bertman said ."My goal is not to fool voters, it is to get them to make an informed decision as to who they want running their council," Bertman said. "It amazes me that they are crying foul. Meanwhile, nobody is discussing the issues brought up on my site."

"I don't think he used too good of judgment in putting that link in there," Henseler said. "His intent was just to express some of his feelings about things going on in town." Henseler says he is going to discuss the issue in more detail with the other Democratic candidates this week, to see what the overall sentiment is about the site.

"If the general feeling of the candidates is that it (the website) is hurting them, then it's coming down," Henseler said. "I don't want to make that decision on my own, I want other people's thoughts on it.

"Zaccaria says that the website issue is now diverting attention away from what the candidates are really trying to do. "We're here applying for a job," he said. "This is a job interview. We should be looking up to the voters and trying to impress them, so they won't pull a Donald Trump on is."

"If this was actually dirty politics, they would have made some attempt to get away with it," Zaccaria said. "I think it's just unthinking politics. There is no rational reason why you would do something like that. What little respect they have to have for the voters."