Techie Is Fired Over 'Vote Different' Ad
In this morning's AM Edition of Technology Daily, we cited and linked to a Huffington Post blog entry by Phillip de Vellis, a worker at the political technology firm Blue State Digital who created the "Vote Different" online video about presidential candidate and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y.
De Vellis said in his post that he resigned his job at Blue State Digital because of the ad. His statement implied that the decision to leave the firm was his. "The company had no idea that I'd created the ad and neither did any of our clients," de Vellis wrote. "But I've decided to resign anyway so as not to harm them, even by implication."
A statement posted on the front page of the company's Web site tells a different story. "Pursuant to company policy regarding outside political work or commentary on behalf of our clients or otherwise," Managing Director Thomas Gensemer said, "Mr. de Vellis has been terminated from Blue State Digital effective immediately."
Gensemer added that the company does software development and Web hosting for the campaign of Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, one of Clinton's foes in the Democratic presidential primary and the candidate that de Vellis' "Vote Different" video endorsed.
"Mr. de Vellis created this video on his own time," Gensemer said. "It was done without the knowledge of management, and was in no way tied to his work at the firm or our formal engagement [on technology pursuits] with the Obama campaign."
UPDATE: TechPresident has a "Vote Different" edition that rounds up reactions to the news about the man behind the ad. The roundup includes a link to National Journal's own Hotline On Call, which poses some as yet unanswered questions.
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