The D.C. Republican Party has started a website calling on Ward 5 Councilmember Harry Thomas Jr. to resign. What’s probably more interesting is that the domain name www.HarryThomasJr.com was available in the first place.
Don’t politicians know they’ve got to protect their cyberturf? Some do. Sandwich the names of Councilmembers Muriel Bowser, Mary Cheh, David Catania, Vincent Orange, and Phil Mendelson between www. and .com and your browser will take you to either their D.C. Council or campaign websites.
The domain names YvetteAlexander.com and MarionBarry.com are still for sale, as is VinceGray.com.
As for the rest of the council, their domain names have already been taken. Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham‘s web namesake is a guy in New York whose hobbies include guns, motorcycles, and fancy cars. For some reason, JackEvans.com takes you to two female realtors in Orange County, Calif., whose names are nowhere near “Jack” or “Evans.” (D.C.’s Graham uses GrahamWOne.com as his web address; Ward 2’s Jack Evans uses JackEvans.org.)
Type in MichaelBrown.com and you’ll find samples from optical artist Michael Brown, whose art will next appear at a show in Oconomowoc, Wisc.
Council Chairman Kwame “Fully Loaded” Brown shares a name with an underachieving NBA player (minus the “fully loaded” part). Basketball player Brown’s union owns the rights to www.KwameBrown.com because the Miami Heat’s Chris Bosh once sued a cybersquatter.
Ward 6 Councilmartyr Tommy Wells has it worst/best of all. If you visit TommyWells.com you’ll find it belongs to Tommy Wells, a square dance caller from North Carolina. “Available for Weekends. For a Good Time Call Tommy Wells,” reads the website, which also says “never try to teach a pig to sing. It just wastes your time and annoys the pig.”
LL called North Carolina’s Wells for a chat. He says he’s come across the District’s Tommy Wells “a time or two” while on the Internet.
“I’m aware he’s there,” says Wells. “I don’t even know if he’s a Democrat or a pretty good politician.”
When LL informs him that the District’s Wells is, indeed, a Democrat, North Carolina’s Wells replies, “Well, you can’t hold that against him.”
Wells says he sells lights to emergency and work vehicles to pay the bills but is “pretty well known around the country” as a square dance caller. He describes himself as“just a good old boy down here in the south.”
As for his website, Wells says he’d be open to selling it to the District’s Wells: “I don’t really have a need for it.”
Sounds like a good opportunity for a certain councilmember!