Web site offers candidates campaign outlet

A new bipartisan World Wide Web venture offers political candidates another

way to broadcast their message and receive donations.

The site, www.CampaignHome.com, allows candidates to post an introduction,

biography, and photograph, as well as accept campaign contributions and

offers from volunteers.

Campaign Home joins many other sites that enable candidates to have contact

with voters online. Sites such as www.voter.com, www.vote-smart.org and

www.grassroots.com either allow candidates to create sites, or gather information

about candidates to post online.

Thus far on the site, only California, Florida, Illinois, Indiana and Maryland

are "populated" with candidates. Managing Director Hank Jibaja said the

company is gathering information from the states and then creating simple

profiles, including a candidate's name, address and phone number.

Once the profile is online, candidates can tailor the site with their message.

The service costs $99.

"It's a low-cost opportunity to create your own Web site," Jibaja said.

"It allows people to quickly identify who is running in the state. You can

quickly read the site and see all the candidates."

Candidates do not need experience in creating Web pages. Using the site's

Web Wizard, the candidate can cut and paste information from a word processor

and immediately see it transferred to HTML. If candidates do not have access

to a digital photograph of themselves to post online, they can mail one

to the Orlando, Fla., office where someone will do it for them.

Now, candidates must pre-pay, but Jibaja said that in two weeks, candidates

could create their own site and view it before they pay. They will be given

their own e-mail address and Web page, determined by a name they give. For

example, their Web page could be: johndoe.campaignhome.com.

A password/login system is also being created to ensure better security,

Jibaja said.

Advertising on the site, will be appropriate and business-oriented, he added.

If candidates already have a Web page, they can link their site to Campaign

Home for $19.