There's an interesting little story, having to do with the Republican National Committee's new GOP.com, that sits at the intersection of online public data and the growing interest in using the nuts-and-bolts of technology as a point of political debate. (See the White House's supposed "spam" list, the pretty empty dustup over Rep. Michelle Bachmann's SMS opt-in, Texas gubernatorial candidate Kay Bailey Hutchison's deserved troubles with search-engine-tricking slipped into the code of her new website, etc., for proof that the latter is quickly becoming a trend.) The Sunlight Foundation's Luke Rosiak recently tweaked the Republican National Committee for financial disclosures that showed what the GOP paid out in technology costs at the time it was overhauling its GOP.com website.* Among other expenses, Rosiak focused in particular on a $1,039,155 payment to a hosting company called Smartech, comparing it to $203,000 spent by the Democratic National Committee for similar services.

Only they weren't similar services, writes James Richardson, who once worked in online communications at the RNC; they only seem that way because of the crudeness of the public data. "Hosting" on a disclosure form, the argument goes, is a catch-all label for a variety of services -- making the comparison to what the DNC pays to host Democrats.org like comparing apples to a fruit basket. Richardson spoke with former RNC "e-campaign director" Mike Turk, who said, "I can tell you from my tenure there that the Smartech bill includes a lot of things that aren’t GOP.com." According to GOP officials, writes Richardson, that million-dollar-plus tab bill covers Internet services at GOP headquarters, the hosting of 31 state party websites, and bulk email services for the national party and 40 different state GOP branches.

*Note: Our Andrew Rasiej and Micah Sifry are senior advisors to the Sunlight Foundation.

• Today is Blog Action Day, and it looks like a huge number--nearly 10,000--have signed up to post on climate action issues.
• Most notable in that list, beyond all the usual enviro sites: Prime Minister Gordon Brown's blog, and the official Google blog.

• James "I videoblogged Ron Paul from my college dorm" Kotecki showers praise on NJ gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie's online campaign.
• While GOP online ad maven Eric Frenchman explains why NJ independent gubernatorial candidate Chris Daggett is AWOL online.

It was probably inevitable that the launch of the GOP's new website would involve a few bumps, but as Andy Barr reports for the Politico, the site's first day was pretty messy.

Among the problems were the posting of administrator passwords, a list of GOP accomplishments that ended in 2004 and a “future leaders” section that was devoid of material. In addition, the site was inaccessible for much of the day.