  The quasar 3C279 was the target of an extensive multiwavelength monitoring
campaign from January through April 2006, including an optical-IR-radio
monitoring campaign by the Whole Earth Blazar Telescope (WEBT) collaboration.
In this paper we focus on the results of the WEBT campaign. The source
exhibited substantial variability of optical flux and spectral shape, with a
characteristic time scale of a few days. The variability patterns throughout
the optical BVRI bands were very closely correlated with each other. In
intriguing contrast to other (in particular, BL Lac type) blazars, we find a
lag of shorter- behind longer-wavelength variability throughout the RVB ranges,
with a time delay increasing with increasing frequency. Spectral hardening
during flares appears delayed with respect to a rising optical flux. This, in
combination with the very steep IR-optical continuum spectral index of ~ 1.5 -
2.0, may indicate a highly oblique magnetic field configuration near the base
of the jet. An alternative explanation through a slow (time scale of several
days) acceleration mechanism would require an unusually low magnetic field of <
0.2 G, about an order of magnitude lower than inferred from previous analyses
of simultaneous SEDs of 3C279 and other FSRQs with similar properties.
