MITCHELL - At least two South Dakota politicians already have reserved a spot in cyberspace, looking ahead to the 2010 election for governor.

Two Republicans, Lt. Gov. Dennis Daugaard and state Senate Majority Leader Dave Knudson of Sioux Falls, both have registered Internet domain names.

Daugaard said he plans to run, and Knudson said he is considering it.

Daugaard's is daugaardforgovernor.com, and Knudson's is knudsonforgovernor.com.

Both said their children urged them to register the domain names early.

A Sioux Falls ad agency where Daugaard's daughter works registered the name for the lieutenant governor.

Knudson's son, who works for Microsoft, used an online service to register a domain name. "Quite frankly, it would have never crossed my mind" without such prompting, he said.

The topic made news when The Associated Press reported that a staffer for a Louisiana senator registered hersethforsenate.com the same day that Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson suffered a brain hemorrhage.

The man who registered the name was not connected to Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin but apparently was hoping she would run for the Senate if Johnson could not.

In the world of domain names, besides people who register their own names, there are squatters and speculators.

Squatters register someone else's name with the intention of demanding money for it or using it to defame the person.

Speculators register generic domain names that don't infringe on existing trademarks or names, hoping to sell the domain names to anybody who might want them.

Matt Michels of Yankton, another Republican considering running for governor, said nobody will get rich squatting on michelsforgovernor.com. He joked that even if he ran and found out the name was taken, he's too much of a "cheapskate" to pay big bucks for it.

"I think an Internet presence is extremely important; whether a specific domain name is any more, I'm not really sure," Michels said.

Eric Abrahamson of Rapid City, the unsuccessful Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor last year, offered another option.

"I guess if you have political ambitions, maybe one of the first things to do would be to register your domain name for every office you might possibly want to run for," Abrahamson said, "Everything from abrahamsonfordogcatcher to whatever else."