Ad help from 3rd parties fades for McCain

WASHINGTON, Oct. 22 (UPI) -- Hopes for last-minute ads disparaging his Democratic rival have dimmed for Republican John McCain partly because of the U.S. financial crisis, strategists say.

Party insiders had hoped third parties would bankroll negative campaign ads against Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama in the final two weeks before the presidential election, Politico reported Wednesday.

"It's October 21st, and if you can't say it by October 21st, then chances are you're not going to say anything," said Chris LaCivita, the strategist behind the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth in 2004 who now works for American Issues Project, a new conservative third-party group.

Donors ponied up funds for ads linking Obama and 1960s radical William Ayers and pledged to do so for other ads -- but that never happened, LaCivita said.

"Donors just weren't willing to give the money," LaCivita told the Washington publication. "They were hurt badly in the market crash and they were always concerned about how McCain would react."

Some anti-Obama spots on judicial issues and abortion will air before Election Day, said Greg Mueller, a GOP strategist who worked with the Swift Boat operation that questioned 2004 Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry's Vietnam war record.

LaCivita said there's a slight chance a wealthy benefactor will emerge.

"Some guy could wake up and call me and say, 'here is $20 million,'" LaCivita said. "But I don't see it happening."