Ken Runion on the Internet
Mr. Runion’s covert activity on the web is being revealed at a time when he cast himself as an innocent victim of Internet hi-jinks. In fact, he has been engaging in secretive web tactics for some time.
In March of 2009 he told the Altamont Enterprise that he never used the web before:
“I’ve never used the web in the past, but I felt that I had to put up some sort of site to counter Redlich’s,” said Runion
Unfortunately for Mr. Runion, his activity on the web left tracks.
Documents show he registered domain names back in February of 2008. Mr. Runion denies any involvement with sites that make scandalous charges about other town board members. See for example this article in the Times Union:
"Runion has denied setting up two other sites, GuilderlandEnterprise.com and GuilderlandNews.com."
Let's check the facts. One of Runion's first websites was guilderlandenterprise.com. This was an obvious attempt to falsely embrace the legitimacy of the town’s local weekly. A website known as Domain Tools allows people to research a website's "domain history." We did that with this site. Anyone who wants to check our facts can do so on their site, though it can cost something. To make it easy, we're providing some of the evidence here, saving you time and money.
The image shows that the domain information was public from 2/2/08 until it was hidden in early March of 2009, shortly after the Enterprise revealed that Mr. Runion was responsible for the sites. The pdf of the above page is here.
Again, keep in mind that Mr. Runion denies any involvement with these sites:
"Runion said he has no involvement with either of those sites and doesn’t know who is responsible for them."
The pdf for the 2/2/08 record is here. It shows that the domain was created on February 1, 2008. On its creation, it was registered in Mr. Runion's name, with his home address, home phone, and his e-mail address. He did tell a local paper that the e-mail address associated with the sites, runionk@verizon.net, was not his. However, he has sent e-mails from this address in the past. You can "right-click" either of these images and click "View Image" to see them full size.
We've posted more pdfs of domain histories on this site:
Guilderland News: History 1 History 2
Guilderland Online: History 1 History 2
Each site was registered in Mr. Runion's name.
There is plenty of other evidence connecting Mr. Runion to the sites. When he created his "official" websites, the other sites all posted links to them almost immediately. Anyone who has ever tried to promote a website knows how improbable that is without Runion communicating with the person(s) responsible for these sites.