Video gaffe slips past DuPage Co. board chair candidate

Campaign Web sites typically are designed to help candidates advance their message, not provide attack fodder for opponents.

Republican DuPage County Board Chairman candidate Gary Grasso's Web site did both.

Until recently, a supporter's video featuring rap music lyrics containing an expletive and a racial epithet appeared on Grasso's Web site among the candidate's campaign news updates, voter information details and other videos. He pulled the video when the Daily Herald informed him of the song's lyrical content.

"I had heard about the video, but I didn't understand there to be anything on there like that," Grasso said. "It's certainly nothing anybody I'm associated with would ever condone."

Grasso ignored Northwestern University assistant political science professor Victoria DeFranceseco Soto's golden rule regarding campaign Web sites.

"Take five minutes to check your Web site once a day," she said. "I know five minutes in the heat of it is tough, but things like this can happen, which can hurt you. It's better to not have a Web site if you're not going to take the time to read through it. That's the only 'do,' and if you follow that, then there really aren't any 'don'ts.'"

While political marketing experts agree Web sites can offer a politician's competitors access to information that may be used against them, control over the content on the site makes major Web-related campaign missteps rare.

"Gaffes will occur when the candidate and his or her strategist don't take into account all the various users of the site," said DePaul University marketing professor Bruce Newman. "Candidates are still more likely to make mistakes in the more traditional political venues of television advertising or campaign stops."

Newman - who is also editor of the Journal of Political Marketing - said candidates should constantly monitor and evaluate the success of the content on the Web site and not "compromise on the importance of good taste of what one puts on their Web site."

Grasso said the video was produced by friends of his high school-age son and posted on YouTube. Grasso said his webmaster heard about it and linked it to the campaign Web site about a week ago.

DeFrancesco Soto said candidates should hire someone they trust to run the Web sites. But at the end of the day, the candidates have to be responsible for the content of the site just as much as they are responsible for the content of any other advertising.

Earlier in the campaign season, one of Grasso's fellow Republican chairman candidates, Debra Olson, also blamed her webmaster for a page on her campaign Web site that seemingly touted endorsements for her current race when they were actually related to her previous run for another office.

"Regardless of generation or tech savvy, the candidate should be in a supervisory role," DeFrancesco Soto said.

Republican voters will decide Tuesday among Grasso, Olson, state Sen. Dan Cronin and state Sen. Carole Pankau who will get the party's nomination to run against Democrat Carole Cheney in November.