The San Diego County Republican Party operates at least 19 websites — including its portal at sandiegorepublicans.org and 17 presidential candidate sites.
(The 19th is devoted to opposing Hillary Clinton.)
All are hosted by the San Francisco-based company Weebly, whose CEO and founder is David Rusenko, in his early 30s.
According to federal records, Rusenko in 2012 gave Democrats at least $12,500. He made a $7,500 donation to the Obama Victory Fund and $2,500 donations to both Obama for America and the Democratic National Committee.
A spokesman for the San Francisco Registrar of the Voters said Rusenko is a registered Democrat who has voted regularly in local elections since 2008. But the CEO doesn’t wear his party on his sleeve.
Asked for comment on GOP sites hosted by Weebly, Rusenko said: “I think political discourse is the foundation for democracy and find it incredibly rewarding that Weebly can play a small role in furthering that.” A Weebly spokeswoman declined comment on Rusenko’s party leanings.
The local GOP isn’t alone in having its website hosted by Weebly. So does the San Francisco Republican Party. But neighboring party sites in Los Angeles and Orange County have other hosts.
Weebly hosts more than 20 million sites, with many users attracted to its free website-creation tools. But the San Diego GOP appears to be paying Weebly for upgraded services, which cost as much as $25 a month.
Local GOP officials haven’t responded to requests for comment.
Julianna Chick and Francis Barraza, former executive directors of the county GOP, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Chick registered 16 of the 17 domain names of the candidate-branded websites, such as bobbyjindalsandiego.com. Thomas “TJ” Zane, the current executive director, registered the domain name of jimgilmoresandiego.com.
The San Diego Republican website has been around since 2001, with its first archived page being recorded a week before the 9/11 attacks.
Three services confirmed that the San Diego GOP websites are hosted by Weebly, including whoishostingthis.com and webhostinghero.com.
In 2007, Weebly raised $650,000 from Ron Conway and other so-called angel investors. Conway is a well-known Democratic power in the Bay Area, with one local report saying the San Francisco Democratic Central Committee might be called the Democratic County Conway Committee.
Conway has contributed $200,900 to 21 committees as of June 2014, “which puts Conway in the top 10 percent of all donors from San Francisco,” said insidegov.com. “In terms of total lifetime contributions (2014 and 2012 elections), Conway has contributed a total of $348,691 to 38 committees and has traditionally given more to Democratic-affiliated committees than any other party-affiliated committees.”
The San Diego County Democratic Party website at sddemocrats.org is hosted by BlackMesh Inc., founded in 2003 by friends Eric Mandel and Jason Ford. Mandel is still president and CEO of the company based in Ashburn, Virginia.