Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Lawyer sets sights on 9th District
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roanoke.com/politics
The official announcement isn't due until the end of the month, but Rocky Mount lawyer and Democrat Eric Ferguson will once again challenge for the 9th District seat in the House of Delegates.
Ferguson will make his formal announcement in front of the Franklin County Courthouse at 4 p.m. March 29, but he's already set up an official Web site for his 2007 campaign, www.fergusonfordelegate.com.
"I'm just excited about the possibility to run for the House of Delegates again for Franklin and Floyd and Pittsylvania counties," Ferguson said. "We ran an aggressive campaign last time. I really don't think the district has received much since the last election."
Some Web logs have speculated on whether the 9th District's sitting incumbent, Del. Allen Dudley, R-Rocky Mount, may retire this year, but he has declined to comment on the matter. In 2005, he waited until June to hire a campaign manager and set up headquarters.
Dudley responded to news of the 2007 Ferguson campaign by questioning Ferguson's aptitude for the job.
"I think there'll be plenty of opportunities for people to speak to Eric Ferguson's qualifications," Dudley said. He then asked if the reporter included an "s" on the end of "qualifications."
"I guess you have to be grammatically correct, but I'm not sure it should have an 's,' " Dudley said.
Ferguson's campaign that year was the closest any Democrat has come to defeating Dudley since he first won election in a close race over Wes Naff in 1993. With a campaign orchestrated by political consultants Dave "Mudcat" Saunders and Joe Stanley, Ferguson cast himself as an "Old Timey Democrat" in the mold of Harry Truman. He used radio ads broadcast on country music and conservative talk radio stations to attack Dudley both personally and politically.
Stanley strikes again
Web surfers looking for Mac McCadden's campaign Web site might end up confused if they're searching by domain name.
Enter macmccadden.com, .net or .org and your Web browser will take you not to the site of the man challenging Onzlee Ware for the Democratic nomination in the 11th House District, but to Ware's site. Instead, McCadden's site is at www.mccaddenfordelegate.com.
Blame it on Joe Stanley, a Franklin County political consultant who in 2005 acquired allendudley.com when his client, Rocky Mount lawyer Eric Ferguson, was running against Del. Allen Dudley in the 9th District.
Last year Stanley did some more speculating on domain names. He purchased a number of domains from godaddy.com for $1.99 each. His purchases included a variety of sites based on the names of various political candidates, including both allies and enemies.
Stanley bought onzleeware.com, which he ended up designing for the incumbent delegate. He then directed the McCadden domains, which he purchased in January, to Ware's site.
Likewise, allendudley.com, along with the domains consisting of a number of other potential Republican candidates in the 9th District, now point to Ferguson's campaign site.
Despite all this, Stanley said he's been unable to acquire his own domain name. Unfortunately, he said, joestanley.com has been unavailable since he started inquiring about it in the late '90s.
