Cybersquatter May Cash In on Kerry-Edwards Ticket

What’s in a name? For Kerry Edwards, about $85,000.

The 34-year-old Indianapolis bail bondsman created his own website, KerryEdwards.com, two years ago to post photos of his young son. But since Sen. John F. Kerry announced Sen. John Edwards as his running mate last week, the site’s popularity -- and market value -- has exploded.

Kerry Edwards has fielded a variety of offers to buy his website, including, he says, one early Tuesday from the Kerry-Edwards campaign. He says the campaign asked him to donate the site and balked at his asking price.

A spokesman for the Kerry campaign could not confirm that someone in the campaign had approached Edwards, but said that the campaign was happy with its current site, JohnKerry.com.

Edwards’ domain name now costs about $4.95 a month, but his offers have climbed to nearly six figures.

“It’s taken on a life of its own,” Edwards said. He said he had fielded about 100 calls from Internet companies, Democrats, Republicans and even a talk show host looking to buy the site.

Edwards said he planned to make a sale by early this week, and hoped to raise enough money to pay for his son Kerry Parker Edwards’ college tuition.

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Exercising Rights

Democrats and Republicans are lacing up their sneakers in the name of democracy with two similar yet diametrically opposed political groups: Run Against Bush and Run For Bush.

Members of the groups are suiting up in T-shirts that proclaim their political preferences, and are pounding the pavement to spread their silk-screened, 100% cotton messages.

The Democratic group, a registered political action committee, originated a few months ago with Washington-area runners who were eager to air their grievances with the Bush administration.

“There’s a big concern among individuals speaking out on their own,” said Rich Khoe, 33, a government relations consultant and one of the founding joggers. “By grouping together in informal jogs, walks, I think people feel a lot more comfortable.”

Run Against Bush’s roughly 6,000 members have organized fitness events in cities nationwide. The $25 membership fee buys a shirt and a donation to get-out-the-vote efforts and organizations targeting swing voters.

Run Against Bush recently presented Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe with a $15,000 check, Khoe said.

The group’s GOP counterpart, Run For Bush, was born after Denver Republican Patrick Brown saw an athlete whiz by wearing one of the anti-Bush shirts.

Brown, a 33-year-old small-business owner, decided GOP exercisers should have the chance to air their views too, and founded Run For Bush last month.

“I was struck by the negativity of the [Run Against Bush] campaign, and thought we could do something a little more positive,” Brown said.

His group has several hundred members. The pro-Bush joggers pay $13.95, which covers the cost of the shirts and maintaining the group’s Internet site, www.runforbush.org.

Whatever side you’re running for, “It’s a good thing either way,” Brown said. “It’s just a matter of getting people out there and talking.”

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Seeking Balance

As she traveled last week with the presumed Democratic presidential ticket, Teresa Heinz Kerry heaped praise on her husband’s pick for vice president.

But, on Wednesday, at a rally on a Dayton, Ohio, riverbank with John F. Kerry and his running mate, John Edwards, she expressed hope that future presidential tickets would look a little different.

“This is an amazing voyage we are in now: two teams -- happen to be two men,” Heinz Kerry said.

She added: “Someday that will change, too.”

The audience burst into whoops and applause.

“They are great men, but alongside them are some gals, as they say,” Heinz Kerry continued. “And we are particularly good for them, because we keep them on the narrow and the straight.”

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Duly Quoted

“I want to see the vice presidential debate. I want to see the debate between John Edwards and Dick Cheney. It’s going to look like Dennis the Menace debating Mr. Wilson.” -- Jay Leno on NBC’s “Tonight Show” on Wednesday.

“You just lost the bald vote.” -- Teresa Heinz Kerry to her husband on Wednesday, poking fun at his and John Edwards’ hairstyles.

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Compiled from staff, Web and wire reports by Times staff researcher Susannah Rosenblatt.