Occasional morsels from Campaign 2000

Eminent domain

It’s clever--G-Bay--but the name that Al Gore proposed for a Web site to auction government equipment may have glitches. Nearly every variation is taken of that Internet address, which sounds a lot like online auctioneer eBay.

G-bay.com is an Italian manufacturer of industrial clothing. Unhyphenated Gbay.com, out of Shawnee, Kan., sells seafood and meat.

The owners of Gbay.net and Gbay.org have plans for those sites, but are willing to sell, if Gore is interested.

“It would have to be kind of pricey,” said Marvin Stiles, who owns the dot.net variation and may use it to offer free e-mail to fellow residents of Granite Bay, Calif. Stiles threw out $250,000 as a minimum bid.

Gore announced his G-Bay idea during a speech two weeks ago. The site would sell equipment the government no longer needs.

Most likely, since it would be a government-run site, G-Bay would take a dot.gov address. Good thing too. A pornographic Web site, trying to lure unsuspecting, civic-minded Internet users, combined the dot.com suffix with the name of a Washington landmark.

Family feud

Former bedfellows make strange politics in a South Carolina runoff race that pits an incumbent state representative against her estranged husband.

In one of the more dramatic Republican races of this week’s primary, state Rep. Shirley Hinson, 50, ended up in a runoff with her estranged husband, Jimmy Hinson, after winning 42% of the vote to his 32% in unofficial results. A third candidate got 26%.

The couple’s marital problems are well-known and include alleged death threats, jail time and a restraining order.

Jimmy Hinson, 53, said during the campaign that he wasn’t running against his wife out of revenge but because he thought he could do a better job.

“I am the one who introduced my wife to politics,” he said. “I’ve always had an interest in politics.”

Jimmy Hinson, a high school teacher, was arrested in 1998 and charged with making a telephone death threat to Republican Rep. James Law based on rumors that Law and Shirley Hinson were having an affair. A grand jury refused to indict him.

His wife and Law denied they were romantically involved.

Shirley Hinson at one time took out a restraining order against her husband, accusing him of stalking her at the statehouse and threatening to kill her.

The Hinsons have been married for 32 years. They are in the process of divorcing.

On the move

Al Gore’s campaign has a new chairman and new Nashville headquarters. The staff has left Music City’s downtown for a larger space in a strip mall. They leave behind a looming billboard, leased nearby by the Republican National Committee, that confronted Gore with his ties to President Clinton and a charge from former Democratic challenger Bill Bradley that the vice president cannot be trusted.

“I think we drove him into the suburbs,” crowed RNC Chairman Jim Nicholson. “I think every day for the Gore staff was Groundhog Day. Whenever they popped their head out of that building, they saw our billboard.”

Nicholson’s minions--like the brothers of the Delta House in “Animal House” scheming against the rival Omegas--are struggling to come up with new digs at Gore’s new digs. Bus benches and mobile billboards are being talked about. For now, an RNC sympathizer who manages a software company next door to Gore’s new office has plastered his fleet of pickup trucks with Bush 2000 signs and bumper stickers.

A boy and a bull

Logan Walters, personal aide to George W. Bush, thought he had it made on his 26th birthday when the boss attended his surprise party and flew Walters’ girlfriend in from Texas.

But Bush had one more gift or, to be more precise, his cow Ophelia did. She gave birth to a new bull Sunday at Bush’s ranch in Crawford, Texas. The governor promptly named him “Logan,” after the staffer who follows him wherever he goes.

“He was born on Logan’s birthday,” the GOP presidential contender said Thursday as his plane flew to Boston’s Logan International Airport--named not for Walters but a former military hero.

The birth announcement came four days after Bush showed his appreciation by attending a lobster dinner in Walters’ honor at a restaurant in Kennebunkport, Maine, where Bush was vacationing. Bush’s wife, Laura, arranged the affair.

Asked whether Logan--the calf--would remain a bull or become a steer, the governor demurred. “Good question,” Bush replied.

Quote file

“I am who I am.”

--Al Gore, when asked if he is worried that his “stiff, wooden and dull” image will hurt his White House chances.

Compiled by Massie Ritsch from Times staff and wire reports