Flagler School Board Chair and congressional candidate Will Furry was subject to scrutiny this week when two websites with his opponents’ names were acquired in order to redirect users to Furry’s own website. Two addresses, ‘charlesgambaroforcongress.com’ and ‘randyfineforcongress.com’, will send users directly to willfurryforcongress.com.
Furry’s campaign manager, political consultant Chase Russell, denied that Furry or anyone with his campaign was responsible for the web acquisitions. He said that Furry “does not condone unethical campaign practices”. He stated that Furry’s campaign owns two domains: ‘willfurryforcongress.com’ and ‘willfurry4congress.com’. At least two more domains appear to have been set up to redirect to Furry’s site: ‘furryforcongress.com’ and ‘furry4congress.com’.
Reactions and Background
According to Russell, the failure of candidates Charles Gambaro and Randy Fine to capture those domains before they could be commandeered “speaks to the power of the people that they stand behind Will and are willing to help out where they can”.
One of the two candidates is the incumbent congressman, Randy Fine. The other is Palm Coast City Council member Charles Gambaro. All three candidates are Republicans, running to represent a congressional district which has been reliably red for the last several election cycles.
“If the other campaigns wish to have owned these domains, they should have purchased them before announcing,” Russell continued. “That is common practice in this industry and any real campaign consultant would have told them this.”
The two opponents whose names were commandeered were not happy about it. “These are the types of sleazy, deceptive political tactics that disgust all voters,” Gambaro said in a statement reported by Observer Local News. “It is disappointing that a local public official would stoop to this level. It is a desperate maneuver that I personally find appalling by a man that claims to be a person of faith.”
“Certainly a bold move using a cheap trick on voters to increase your name ID — but that seems to be this guy’s only move whenever he runs for office,” added Randy Fine spokesperson Bryan Piligra. “And since he’s a failed politician who can’t come close to matching Randy’s record, it’s not too surprising he feels the need to pretend he is him either. Maybe he’s taking a page out of Gavin Newsom’s playbook.”
During the 2022 election cycle, Furry was also subject to criticism after mailers were sent out on behalf of his School Board campaign attempting to pass off as being in favor of his opponent, Courtney VandeBunte. The mailers ‘thanked’ VandeBunte for “standing against Ron DeSantis”, who enjoys firm popularity in Flagler County.
Chris Gollon is a Flagler County resident since 2004, as well as a staple of the local independent music scene and avid observer of Central Florida politics, arts, and recreation.
