Domain dissent

Why does the NCGOP care who owns Bowles' domains? 

Lockwood alleges the NCDP only bought domains for the other potential candidates after they were "caught" this afternoon having bought the Bowles sites. "The discrepancy in registration dates for Bowles versus other candidates is curious for people who believe that they have a preferred candidate," he said.

But there are a couple of problems with that.

First, "DaltonforNC.com" was registered by the same proxy service Jan. 26th - the day he entered the gubernatorial race. It's not clear who owns it, though the Dems say it's not them. But Dalton owned WalterDalton.org long before his run for governor, and that's the site he updated when he made his announcement. 

Second, the domains aren't timestamped - they're only dated. And domain registration operates on UTC (Greenwich Mean Time), so any site registered in the US after 7pm ET on Jan 31st would show up as a Feb. 1st registration. Without a timestamp, it's not possible to prove Lockwood's charge.

Third, all the candidates except Bowles already owned some version of their name as a domain (although Etheridge's domain is EtheridgeforCongress.com, which wouldn't work so well for a gubernatorial campaign).

All of which leads one to wonder about the GOP's angle here. It looks like Republicans are hoping to sour grassroots Dems on Bowles by labeling him a favorite of party leaders. Even last fall, when Faison was first making moves toward a run, it was common to see Republican staffers at his press conferences at the legislative building. 

"If the evidence had lined up then there’s no story. It’s just that when I see them doing something that looks fishy, I point it out. I know that they do the same thing to me. That’s the way it goes in this line of work," Lockwood said. 

It's still not clear what interest the GOP has in the internal workings of the Democratic primary before the race has even shaped up, let alone produced an opponent for McCrory.