Ford calls foul over fake website

SANDPOINT — An impostor website unflatteringly touting Bonner County sheriff candidate Terry Ford is being traced back to Sheriff Daryl Wheeler's second-in-command.

The rudimentary terryfordsheriff.com website features a blurry photo of Ford at an event and some brief statements about his candidacy.

“Terry Ford is running for Sheriff in Bonner County, Idaho,” the website's copy reads. “Ford was born in Arkansas and has law enforcement experience. He retired just a little bit early from the Idaho State Police at the rank of corporal.”

The one-page site also displays a photo of a Ford campaign banner hanging on a fence.

“This sign may be sagging, but Terry Ford's campaign is not,” the caption reads. “Ford is energetic and he is excited about his qualifications. While Terry Ford is not currently a state certified law enforcement officer he plans to ride along with his deputies to help them out if he becomes sheriff.”

Tim Fry, a software developer assisting with Ford's campaign, discovered the impostor site on April 11 and began investigating its provenance using the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which is the official registrar of website domain names.

The search revealed that the site was being hosted on computer servers at blueshingle.com, which is registered to David Hale, Wheeler's undersheriff.

A search of other websites that rely on blueshingle.com servers turned up more than a dozen sites registered to Hale or his wife.

“There's no other names associated with these sites,” Fry said on Wednesday.

There was an attempt to shield the true source of the site by registering it under another person's name, but the hosting servers betrayed that effort.

Ford's campaign contends the website is meant to make him appear unpolished or unqualified.

“It's just uncalled for,” said Ford, who is seeking the site's removal and called the ploy “childish.”

The information on the spoof website is not entirely correct.

While it's true Ford originally hails from Arkansas and is retired from Idaho State Police after 25 years, his departure was not premature and his rank at the time was master corporal. It's also true that Ford's Idaho Peace Officer Standards & Training certification lapsed in retirement, but that credential is not a requirement for elected sheriffs.

Hale readily admitted that he was behind the site, but contends it was not an attempt to malign Ford.

“It's not an impersonation website. It's information about Terry Ford,” Hale said on Wednesday.

Hale said he created the website because there wasn't enough information about Ford's candidacy in a short election cycle.

Moreover, Hale said Wheeler was unaware the site until WVednesday.

“Daryl didn't know anything about this website until today,” Hale said.

Wheeler did not respond to an emailed request for comment regarding his awareness of the website.

The unofficial site was among several links posted to Wheeler's personal website on Wednesday morning. By Wednesday evening, the link had been scrubbed from that site. Fry said the former link from Wheeler's page was engineered to legitimize the unauthorized site through backlinking.

Fry said a typical way to boost page rankings on Google and to optimize Internet searches is to generate backlinks, which are links from reputable external sites into sites being promoted.

The unofficial site stated on Wednesday morning that it was “Paid for by Friends of Terry Ford for Sheriff,” but that statement also was scrubbed by Wednesday night.

There is no record of the organization on file with Bonner County elections officials or the Idaho Secretary of State.