DEMS BUY SEN. ‘FOR SALE’ URLS
Transparency a concern for sold sites
WASHINGTON — Dozens of web addresses implying U.S. senators were “for sale” have been quietly purchased online, amid heightened concerns on Capitol Hill that foreign agents — especially Russians — might be trying to meddle in upcoming midterm elections.
An Associated Press investigation found the responsible party: Democrats.
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee acknowledged to the AP that it had quietly purchased the addresses, which use a new internet suffix “forsale,” in March for at least 27 GOP and Democratic senators facing re-election. The cybersecurity director for the U.S. Sergeant at Arms Office, the highest-ranking U.S. law enforcement officer in the Senate, has been looking into the matter, but declined to comment on the “active defense” of its system.
The DSCC masked its role in the purchase to ensure its identity as the buyer remained anonymous.
“It’s a routine campaign practice to purchase URLs to stop bad actors from getting them, and if we eventually decided to develop a URL into a website then there would be a clear disclosure of who was operating it,” said DSCC communications director Lauren Passalacqua.
The mysterious “forsale” purchases set off alarms. AP’s review found roughly 280 political web addresses registered under the “forsale” domain, targeting President Trump, the GOP, Supreme Court and National Rifle Association, as well as individual Democrats and Republicans. The DSCC said it was responsible for at least 27 of them targeting U.S. senators.
Tim Groeling, an expert on political communication and new media at the University of California, Los Angeles, said the anonymity sought by the Democratic group was what troubled him.
“The lack of transparency is both concerning from a standpoint of the potential for other governments to do this type of thing and not be revealed, and our domestic politics,” Groeling said. “I’m a big fan of transparency. I think a lot of things can be fixed with sunlight.”
The addresses the Democrats registered included the names of Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.); Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.); Ted Cruz (R-Texas); Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.); Bob Casey (D-Pa.); Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.); Angus King (IMaine); Roger Wicker (RMiss.); and Dean Heller (R-Nev.).
Warren’s staff declined to comment, as did others. The GOP, DNC and NRA also did not respond to questions from the AP.