A Wisconsin Governor candidate Tom Barrett’s domain name expires during his campaign run! BarrettForWisconsin.com is displaying ads for another candidate Scott Walker stating "Tired of Higher Taxes? Stop Tom The Taxer!" 
via a Google AdWords campaign Scott is likely running.
Oops!
BarrettForWisconsin.com was first registered on August 25, 2009 and since domain names are registered for 1 year at a time (with the option for up to 10 years) at time of registration, it appears the 1 year minimum was used. By default, GoDaddy.com, the domain name registrar used to register the domain offers an auto-renew feature. The auto renew is done using Paypal or Credit Card information on file and if used and the proper data is included your account, the domain renews automatically each year. Either the auto renew was turned off, or no financial details were likely provided for the domain.
The domain name is actually registered to Democratic Domain Holdings according to whois records.
GoDaddy and basically every domain name registrar will send several domain name renewal notifications to the registrant of the domain prior to the domain name expiring. As the expire date nears, the notifications increase warning of the expire date.
Here is the general process of expired domain names at GoDaddy.com and what will happen if the domain name is not renewed that I covered in an earlier article. It is very likely the domain name will be renewed, but it can take several days for the domain name servers to resolve back to the website from the above pictured standard GoDaddy landing page.
I have watched this race "domain wise" (I hate politics and really could care less who wins) and Scott Walker is the man when it comes to using good domains! Scott Walker is the clear winner using ScottWalker.org (used on signs) and BrownBagMovement.com as another which is used in TV ads! ScottWalker.org simply makes sense, because it’s his name. BrownBagMovement.com is catchy and grabs the attention of TV users. BarrettForWisconsin.com .. not so much! Barrett is a typo waiting to happen IMO, "for" can come across in many ways when heard (for, four, 4) and the domain lacks any legs for future use… unless he loses and wishes to run again!
Joe
Everything is OK now.
tricolorro
“Barrett is a typo waiting to happen IMO, “for” can come across in many ways when heard (for, four, 4)… ”
And Barrett is ripe for typos as well
Barret
Barett
Baret
Barritt
etc…
Jamie Zoch
@Tricolorro,
“Barrett is a typo waiting to happen” stating that the name is hard to spell! Thanks for including some way’s it could be spelled though.
Isn’t that what I said
tricolorro
“Isn’t that what I said”
Sorry I missed that.
I had focused on your typo comment for “for”.
Steve Hanson
It’s a simple matter of too many people with their fingers in the project. One consultant buys the domain. Another starts the campaign. Then in the long run, the domain expires and nobody currently involved had admin rights. Happens pretty often
Steve Hanson
Oh — and it was only expired for a few hours.
Jamie Zoch
No problem Tricolorro. I kind of mixed the two together
Jamie Zoch
@Steve,
Yep, often too many hands in the pot. I agree it only expired for a few hours but it simply shouldn’t happen at all with the amount of emails that are sent out about it coming up to expire and with auto-renew as another safety net.