One of the first thing you do if you're considering a run for office is to register an appropriate domain name. In the political gold rush that has ensued since Olympia Snowe announced the end of her re-election campaign last night, the shifting landscape of URLs gives us some ideas which candidates are staking their claims.

Since many candidates already own suitable domain names, such as chelliepingree.com or rosaformaine.com, registrations won't tell us everything, but they're a start.

First, the most interesting:

Last night, a group called Cain for Congress (with an adress that matches Emily Cain's residence in Orono) registered cainforcongress.com. That's about as serious a sign as it gets at this point.

Several other domans have been registered anonymously in the past few hours, likely by people close to the candidates. These include hannahpingree.com, baldacciforsenate.com and petercianchette.com.

Several other domains have also been registered since last night by Night Owl Publishing, Inc. of Ocean Spring Mississippi, with someone named Spencer Garrett listed as the contact. It's likely that this is just a domain name prospector hoping that a candidate will pay them for the rights to the URL.

Night Owl has purchased abbottforsenate.com, michaudforsenate.com, cianchetteforsenate.com, and poliquinforsenate.com.

Many relevant domain names have already been purchased previously by others, these include (all .com):

bennettforsenate (2004)
summersforsenate (2004)
libbyforsenate (2009)
kingforsenate (2008)
pingreeforsenate (2009)
rayeforsenate (2009)
mikemichaud (2008)
ottenforsenate (2012)
adamcote (2007)
millsforsenate (2007)
emilycain (2006)
dunlapforcongress(2011)

Here are some domains that are still up for grabs, perhaps signifying that the potential candidates don't have enough of an immediate interest in the race to snap up the domain (all .com):

cutlerforsenate
angusforsenate
roweforsenate
rosaforsenate
scarcelliforsenate
lepageforsenate
ethanstrimling
strimlingforcongress
coteforcongress
mcgowanforcongress
plowmanforcongress
debraplowman
poliquinforcongress
dillforcongress
hinckforcongress
bartlettforcongress

For an entertaining tracking of all potential candidates, see the series of recent posts on Matt Gagnon's blog, starting here. Steve Mistler is keeping a running tally of who has taken out papers to run.

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