New Marlborough — Were it not for New Marlborough resident and redeveloper Paul Joffe – his GB Historic Renovations LLC is converting the former Methodist Church on Great Barrington’s Main Street into a restaurant complex — presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, the very independent U.S. Senator from Vermont, might not have an easily recognizable web site domain name to represent his presidential aspirations – at least, not one with that reads www.BernieSanders.com.
A year ago, long before even the most imaginative political pundit would have predicted Sanders would be contemplating a run for the presidency, Joffe discovered that no one owned the web address, berniesanders.com So as a former Vermont resident and diehard Sanders fan, Joffe bought it for $2,500. And he set it up so that it linked to Sanders U.S. Senate web page.
“I figured that if I could buy it, anyone could buy it and that is bad,” Joffe told a CNN reporter. “I was worried that somebody would buy it and redirect it to BernieSucks.com, or something like that.”
But shortly after Joffe had purchased it representatives of Sanders political campaign inquired whether he would be willing to sell it. Something was up, Joffe realized.
In typical Vermont barter market fashion, Joffe said no, he wouldn’t sell it. But he would trade it – for an opportunity to meet the senator. Besides, he reasoned, he wanted to make sure that the aides who said they were from Sanders’ officer really were who they said they were.
They were.
Joffe and his wife Ingrid met Sanders in Bennington, Vermont, and presented him with a framed “deed” to BernieSanders.com
During their meeting, Joffe recalled, they talked about Bernie running for president.
“I am really happy he is running for president,” Joffe told CNN. “I told him I hoped he would and was talking to him about running for president and he said, at the time, ‘Hey, I don’t know yet.’ ”
A year later, we know. Sanders announced his candidacy for president on April 30, 2015 in Burlington, Vermont. His official web address: www.berniesanders.com.
