A Democratic operative with ties to Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential campaign claimed credit Wednesday for creating and posting a mystery video on the Internet that slammed Obama’s main rival, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Obama’s campaign repeated its denial of any involvement in the matter.
The operative, Philip De Vellis, said he created the spot and posted it on YouTube while employed by a company that is advising the Illinois Democrat’s campaign on its Internet presence.
The company, Blue State Digital, said de Vellis was “terminated” on Wednesday; de Vellis said he resigned.
Obama spokesman Bill Burton said in an e-mail that Obama’s campaign and its employees “had no knowledge and had nothing to do with the creation of the ad.”
Burton said Blue State, a Washington company, assured the campaign that de Vellis “did no work on our campaign’s account.”
The video, a take-off on a famous Apple Computer ad that aired in 1984, created buzz on the Internet and in the media in part because it was provocative but also because the creator identified himself only as ParkRidge47, a reference to Clinton’s year of birth and place where she was raised.
Given that the Internet is all but unregulated and the cost of producing such spots is minimal, the episode probably is a harbinger of what is in store for the 2008 campaign, at least the part that will play out on the Internet.
“The 2008 campaign is going to be dramatically different because of YouTube, because of citizen involvement, and because of people like Phil de Vellis doing an ad that becomes explosively viral,” said Arianna Huffington, who oversees The Huffington Post, which first disclosed de Vellis’ identity.
Huffington outed de Vellis by urging her contributors to work their contacts until they identified ParkRidge47. It took about a day.
Huffington wrote Wednesday that she called de Vellis to ask him about the spot and invited him to explain himself, which he did later Wednesday.
De Vellis wrote on Huffington Post: “I did it. And I’m proud of it.”
De Vellis has worked on numerous campaigns, including that of Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, elected in November.
“There are thousands of other people who could have made this ad, and I guarantee that more ads like it – by people of all political persuasions – will follow,” de Vellis wrote. “This shows that the future of American politics rests in the hands of ordinary citizens.”
