Visitors to ChicagoGOP.com may have gotten a bit of a surprise today — for much of the afternoon, the lead item on the site featured a provocative picture of a bare-chested woman wrapped in a bed sheet.
The NSFW picture is here.
But it turns out that ChicagoGOP.com is an independent blog — and not affiliated with the official local branch of the Republican Party, according to Chicago Republican Party Executive Director Jonathan Blessing.
“It’s an independent blog,” Blessing told TPM. ‘That’s not our site.”
The real Chicago Republican Party site is at ChicagoRepublicanParty.com, not ChicagoGOP.com
A phone call and email to Tom Swiss, who Blessing said runs the unofficial site, were not immediately returned.
Blessing said that while the nude photo on ChicagoGOP.com “got everybody talking,” in general, Swiss’ site advocates for Republican ideas and criticizes Democrats — without resorting to naked photos.
“They’re not a thorn in our side,” he said. “They’re not a problem.”
