Doug Mataconis · · 7 comments

Nevada’s Republican candidate for Senate doesn’t seem to like to have her own words used against her:

Sharron Angle’s campaign sent a cease and desist letter to Sen. Harry Reid’s campaign last week after a copy of her pre-primary election website was relaunched as www.therealsharronangle.com, which was later taken down.

After winning the June 8 primary, Angle took down her website and relaunched a new, glossier and trimmer version on Thursday.

Reid’s campaign then launched a copy of Angle’s former website and accused her toning down her rhetoric on the new website.

The two-page cease and desist letter, sent on July 2 by an attorney representing the Friends of Sharron Angle, said Reid’s campaign had violated federal copyright laws and demanded Reid’s campaign forward any names and e-mails that may have been collected by the copied website.

There were differences between Angle’s former and new sites, namely a missing endorsements page and an edited, scaled-down version of her issues page. For example, the new website made no mention of her position on Yucca Mountain, which is to keep it open, and her calls to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education.

While Reid’s campaign said the cease and desist letter amounted to a frivolous lawsuit threat, the copied version of Angle’s former website had been taken down since it went up on Thursday.

The web address for www.therealsharronangle.com is now directed to www.sharronsundergroundbunker.com.

“Make no mistake, the Reid campaign was forced to take this site down because they were breaking several laws and trying deceive voters,” said Angle spokesman Jerry Stacy. “You’re going to see a lot of dirty tricks like that from Reid’s campaign.”

In a statement, Reid’s campaign said, “Sharron Angle is trying to silence, well, Sharron Angle.”