BREAKING NEWS–An anonymous prankster has opened up a website at the domain SensibleWilton.com, which instead of linking to the website set up by the Sensible Wilton group–at SensibleWilton.org–links to the campaign website of Bernie Sanders, the VT senator running for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination.
“It is hilarious,” was the only comment the prankster said in an anonymous message to GOOD Morning Wilton.
Sensible Wilton is the ad-hoc citizens group that has formed to protest the Miller-Driscoll renovation project. On the official SW website, the group seems to have broadened its early mission, which originally targeted the cost and scope of the school renovation. The website states that the group is “…concerned about the overall spending by the Town. Budget increases that have significantly outpaced inflation, capital (and non-capital) projects that are not thoroughly researched or analyzed and tax hikes that have ALSO outpaced inflation are all part of a spending trajectory that cannot be sustained.”
The group’s website was not hacked by the anonymous prankster; its original domain still exists. Instead, the individual registered the .com domain extension, saying, “They never registered the domain.”
This story will be updated with reactions…check here and at the GOOD Morning Wilton Facebook page.
UPDATE 10:15 a.m.: Sensible Wilton president Alex Ruskewich actually laughed in response to the news of the co-opted domain. “I have to laugh,” he told GOOD Morning Wilton. “What’s the thing you say when you’re a kid? ‘Sticks and stones will break my bones…’ To an extent I find it amusing that somebody has to do something like this. Am I angry? No. I’m sure there will be other things that will be tried. This is basically, when you try to do something a little differently you have people that resist it.
Ever the pragmatist, Ruskewich looked to the silver lining. “It just gives us more exposure,” he said. “We’re trying to the best of our ability to be transparent and we intend to continue to put stuff out there, and tell you where we got it from. The town should be actively transparent, not after the fact to make people have to search for it. That’s not the way to run a town.”