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In another wild election year in Illinois, the race involving Joe Berrios has produced the most bizarre whodunit tale — and what may have been the dirtiest trick of this political season.

Soon after announcing he would take on Berrios for the Democratic nomination for county assessor, challenger Fritz Kaegi says he noticed someone had set up websites purporting to represent him and his rage-against-the-machine campaign.

But Kaegi says he had nothing to do with the new FritzKaegi.org website. Nor, he says, did he set up other accounts that supposedly communicated on his behalf on Twitter, Facebook and a political fundraising site. […]

The GoDaddy domain registrar and website-hosting company has identified the man behind the fake Kaegi campaign site as Quenton Galvin, according to court records.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Galvin is owner of Non Stop Web Design of Grayslake — a company that has done campaign work for many years for Berrios, who’s chairman of the powerful county Democratic Party.

* Hillman adds some much-needed perspective…

Remember that time Forrest Claypool campaign registered Joe Berrios’ web domain and we all laughed at Berrios campaign for not securing his name. I do. https://t.co/hKFo7pxAjh #Twill @Suntimes

— Kyle Hillman (@kylehillman) February 4, 2018

* From the linked story…

Forrest Claypool, who’s running as an independent for Cook County Assessor, launched www.joeberrios.com on Monday, to “highlight the abysmal record of Cook County’s most notorious insider politician.” In a statement to the press, Claypool campaign manager Tom Bowen said “voters can see the complete record of Joe Berrios in all its infamy. Whether it’s tax breaks for politically-connected insiders, investigations for corruption, massive tax increases, or lobbying for the liquor and gaming industry, Joe has done it all while we pay the price.” Bowen notes that “over the course of more than 20 years of public office, Berrios has endured countless investigations for corruption, ghost payrolling, improper hiring, and sweetheart contracts,” while giving property tax breaks to campaign donors and backing Todd Stroger’s tax hikes in Cook County.

* Progress Illinois…

“You’ve got to get your domain name registered early, long before you consider running for office. … If you don’t do that, it is inevitable that someone is going to grab the domain name and make your life difficult.” That was Democratic strategist Kari Chisholm talking to The Hill earlier this year about the phenomenon of political campaigns snatching up opponents’ internet domain names. The latest example of this inevitability can be found right here in Illinois, where independent Cook County assessor candidate Forrest Claypool’s team apparently beat Democratic nominee Joe Berrios to the following domain: www.joeberrios.com.

Oops. Now the Claypool campaign is using the site to slam Berrios’ record as chair of the Cook County Board of Review. It doesn’t show up yet in the Google search results for “Joe Berrios,” but you can bet that will change in the coming weeks.

JoeBerrios.com is currently available, by the way.

posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Feb 5, 18 @ 9:28 am

Comments

–JoeBerrios.com is currently available, by the way.–

LOL, how is that possible?

Comment by wordslinger Monday, Feb 5, 18 @ 9:34 am
Perhaps Kaegi should go buy JoeBerrios.com. He can afford $1,995.

Comment by JoanP Monday, Feb 5, 18 @ 9:40 am
There does seem to be a difference between buying a domain to use as a place to put oppo, and buying a domain to pretend you are that person/candidate.

JB is dropping oppo on Biss through one similar website. Claypool did it to Berrios.

But what Berrios did to Kaegi was to pretend that that the fake Kaegi website was his real website and collect data from prospective supporters.

Comment by SaulGoodman Monday, Feb 5, 18 @ 9:44 am
But the fake Fritz Kaegi sites were actually impersonating Kaegi. That’s not what Claypool did to Berrios (or what JB is doing to Dan Biss, or what tons of campaigns do).

Comment by Century Club Monday, Feb 5, 18 @ 9:51 am
Kaegi should have known better.. BUY your domains. He must have not liked something the site said and instead of just dealing with it, went to court. Welcome to campaigns.

Comment by Anon Monday, Feb 5, 18 @ 10:05 am
**He must have not liked something the site said and instead of just dealing with it, went to court. Welcome to campaigns.**

Again… it wasn’t a site for oppo dumps. It was a site that pretended it was Kaegi’s - and collecting data on prospective Kaegi supporters. It was impersonating Kaegi, and that is where the problem lies.

Comment by SaulGoodman Monday, Feb 5, 18 @ 10:23 am
The FritzKaegi.org website appears to be down, currently.

Comment by Just Observing Monday, Feb 5, 18 @ 10:36 am
**Again… it wasn’t a site for oppo dumps. It was a site that pretended it was Kaegi’s - and collecting data on prospective Kaegi supporters

How do you know that Saul?

Comment by Anon Monday, Feb 5, 18 @ 10:47 am
**How do you know that Saul?**

Did you read the article?

“Soon after announcing he would take on Berrios for the Democratic nomination for county assessor, challenger Fritz Kaegi says he noticed someone had set up websites purporting to represent him and his rage-against-the-machine campaign.
…
In court filings, Kaegi’s lawyers wrote that FritzKaegi.org and other websites were “published without his knowledge, consent or direction,” but they “inferred association with his campaign.” The fake accounts solicited “volunteer signups” and campaign contributions that were supposed help Kaegi unseat Berrios, according to court records.”

Comment by SaulGoodman Monday, Feb 5, 18 @ 11:43 am
** Did you read the article?

Well Saul, I sure did. That is the argument Kaegi is making. Could be true, or its exaggeration.

Bottom line is that Kaegi failed to secure domain names that he should have acquired, then he headed off to court. Again welcome to campaigns.

Comment by Anon Monday, Feb 5, 18 @ 1:02 pm
What I don’t understand is why Rauner doesn’t buy ILGOP.COM from GoDaddy for the $15k when he’s got $100 million to spend on this race. Instead, someone has directed it to the Jeanne Ives website.

Comment by Fritz Berrios Monday, Feb 5, 18 @ 1:27 pm
Simple stuff

Comment by Precinct Captain Monday, Feb 5, 18 @ 1:57 pm
@SaulGoodman Is that you Fritz spending some executive time on here?

Comment by MrCutler Monday, Feb 5, 18 @ 3:26 pm