Jones jumps headfirst into politics with gubernatorial bid.
Christine Jones, former General Counsel & Corporate Secretary for GoDaddy, announced that she will run for Governor of Arizona.
Jones left the company last year after a decade in high profile roles at the fast growing domain name registrar and web services firm.
Having a leading role at a company that created thousands of jobs in the state will no doubt help her bid.
Jones and other GoDaddy executives have a history of backing Republican politicians. In 2008 Jones acted as a “bundler” for John McCain, raising $29,050. During the 2012 election cycle, The GoDaddy.com PAC donated primarily to republican candidates, and Go Daddy founder Bob Parsons chipped in $1 million to Mitt Romney’s PAC.
Politics being what it is, I suspect a couple things that happened during her tenure will be brought up on the campaign trail. First, she was a supporter of the Stop Online Privacy Act, or SOPA, which eventually died after a massive online uprising. Second, she played a role in GoDaddy’s controversial Super Bowl commercials. I mean that literally – she had a cameo in the company’s 2009 “Enhancement” commercial, sitting next to Danica Patrick. That might not sit well with some conservative Republican voters.
Although her legal position at GoDaddy often put her in the crossfires, even some domain industry professionals who had disagreements with her over the years have told me they have the utmost respect for her.
Maybe, she can convince all the Democrats she donated money to to help her campaign.