In a comment submitted to my blog on September 28, 2021, Dillon Moran accused me of lying. I had stated in a recent post that, among other things, Mr. Moran had created a fake website meant to confuse citizens seeking information from a group called “The Real One Saratoga.”
Here is what he wrote:
That is a complete lie. The site you refer to was created by Pat Kane, campaign manager for Heidi West. I registered domain names, a common practice called cyber squatting, a business Ms Dalton has been active in. I have never posted any content on any of the sites you reference, but then again, lying is what you do. In addition, every Democratic Candidate committed to the Saratoga Today Debates when they were offered, but why let the truth get in the way of a headline.
Dillon Moran Comment September 29, 2021
First, it is rather stunning that Mr. Moran admits that he participates in cybersquatting. Cybersquatting is an unsavory business.
Cybersquatting (also known as domain squatting), according to the United States federal law known as the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, is registering, trafficking in, or using an Internet domain name with bad faith intent to profit from the goodwill of a trademark belonging to someone else.
Wikipedia
From ICANN:
Cybersquatting is generally bad faith registration of another’s trademark in a domain name.
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names
Mr. Moran, as he admits, was clearly involved in cybersquatting during last year’s contentious battle over an attempt to change the city charter to create a city manager form of government. Mr. Moran supported the charter change. The image below is from one of the bogus websites he created, pirating the name chosen by a group called Saratoga Works that was opposed to charter change. Here is a link to the post I wrote about this.
It was sloppy of me to attribute to him the cybersquatting that was directed at a different anti charter change citizen group called “The Real One Saratoga.” This group renamed themselves “The Real…” because their original name “One Saratoga” was also taken over by those supporting charter change in order to confuse and misdirect people from their site. Mr. Moran, though, denies that he was responsible for that particular attack.
I admit to my readers I simply assumed his involvement given his history. I should have been more careful, and I apologize.
A Stunning Falsehood
In his comment Mr. Moran also falsely states that Pat Kane is mayoral candidate Heidi Owen-West’s campaign manager. I have checked with both Mr. Kane and Ms. Owen-West. Both confirm that Mr. Kane is not Ms. Owen-West’s campaign manager as Mr. Moran asserts.
A Further Misrepresentation
In my post I wrote that while I had been assured by a good source that the full Democratic slate would be participating in the Saratoga Today candidate forum in October, at the time of the post they had yet to confirm their attendance with Saratoga Today publisher Chad Beatty.
Mr. Moran accuses me of lying, asserting that the Democratic candidates had committed to participating when the invitation was first offered. In fact, the Democrats only finally advised the publisher of Saratoga Today on Tuesday, September 28, that they would be attending his event. This was thirteen days past the deadline to respond.
Mr. Moran should be more careful in the future before he hits the send button.
Saratoga Springs Politics 
So Democratic Accounts candidate Dillon Moran accuses his opponent of fraud for maybe making some inconsequential errors on a petition. Meanwhile Moran boasts of committing fraud himself by creating phony sites to deceive those seeking information on charter change in the last election. Oh and let’s not forget the phony NYS Department of Health letter Moran created the last time he ran for office falsely claiming the city was cited for a violation. Seems to be a pattern here….Wow. And this is who John Franck thinks should take over the Accounts Department?? What is he thinking?
LikeLiked by 3 people
Dillon seems poorly suited for holding any elected office, especially one where attention to detail, managing deadlines and communicating professionally are expected.
The fact that this is the best Democratic candidate the city could come up in a seat they knew would be open is a testament to what a terrible job Sarah Burger did leading the local party.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Nice try
Spin it any way you went and distract from the cold hard facts:
The lady got caught red-handed committing a crime.
Your nonsense does not change that .
But you will continue with the effort, regardless.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I have a feeling that you will be eating some of the words in this post when the facts about the actual fraud comes out. You seem to have a real dislike for Dillon, who will do a fine job as Accounts Commissioner.
LikeLike
I see Maxwell Rosenbaum didn’t show up for the debate. Is he a legitimate candidate or is he running as a spoiler to split the Democratic vote? I remember seeing some reporting here on the Working Families ballot being ratf***ked by Republicans.
Maybe he can write a guest column here to explain his views!
LikeLike
Seems like John Franck may have been right. Check the TU for the police investigation into voter fraud. I’m told it’s just the tip of the iceberg.
LikeLike
These allegations, much like those Moran has made in the past, won’t amount to anything. He seems to have a penchant for waiting until October to unveil these wild and inaccurate claims. He has done it three election cycles in a row, and none of those have panned out either.
Quite simply, the campaign knows the allegations wouldn’t go anywhere. Based on previous court decisions the bar is quite high to prove actual fraud. Simply having someone claim that a signature is not theirs is nowhere near enough. The NYS Appellate Court ruled in 2014 that “ Initially, Supreme Court erred in invalidating the
designating petition based upon alleged fraud on the part of
Jones. A designating petition will be invalidated if the
challenger shows, by clear and convincing evidence, “‘that the
entire petition is permeated with fraud or that the candidate
participated in, or can be charged with knowledge of, fraudulent
activity'” (Matter of Valenti v Bugbee, 88 AD3d 1056, 1057
[2011], quoting Matter of Kraham v Rabbitt, 11 AD3d 808, 809
[2004]). ” The Court determined that even though the candidate had erred by losing track of his petitions and not paying attention to them while people were signing them at a campaign event where people were evidently signing other people’s name, that this wasn’t a chargeable offense and therefore didn’t invalidate the petition. It is the whole reason why they weren’t challenged back in the spring, when the legal window to do so was open. Doing it then would have failed and not created the headline it has created now.
Click to access 519488.pdf
LikeLiked by 1 person