Candidate buys rival's website - WCAX.COM Local Vermont News, Weather and Sports-

Candidate buys rival's website

Campaign signs are a frequent sight for Franklin County motorists.

Passersby can easily distinguish between the red placards of Joe Sinagra and the blue of Norm McAllister's. Both are Republican candidates for State Senate.

But pop the candidate's names into a URL and you'll land on the same site. That's because Joe Sinagra purchased NormMcAllister.com, which now automatically redirects traffic to his site.

"I don't understand that. I don't know why somebody would pull that sort of crap. This is Franklin County. We don't do that stuff to people," McAllister said.

About 20-thousand of McAllister's own campaign materials promote the website bearing his name. But he never purchased the site, which he admits was an oversight.

"This is the big-time politician sleaze as far as I'm concerned," added McAllister.

Sinagra calls his eleven dollar and 47 cent purchase money well spent and says he doesn't see anything unethical about the move.

He bought it August 2nd, but Mcallister only became aware of the site Saturday evening.

"Purchasing an opponent's domain name  -- that's not dirty. What would've been dirty is if I had put up an anti Mcallister website," Sinagra said.

Sinagra says he's the victim of anonymous punches thrown during the campaign. He's had hundreds of his signs stolen, but is cautious not to blame his opponents. "I didn't hide from the fact that I bought NormMcAllister.com. Anyone can go and see that the name is registered to me -- it was on my campaign finance report," he said.

Despite differing outlooks on the ethics of Sinagra's purchase, both say they don't expect the website to sway many -- if any -- voters.