To Barack Obama's delight, Swift Boat-like groups are playing a diminished role in 2008

With a few notable exceptions, the independent campaign ads that came to define the 2004 campaign -- notably those from Swift Boat Veterans for Truth -- have played a much less prominent role in campaign '08.

Perhaps it’s because the Federal Election Commission levied fines against many of the so-called 527 groups that became prominent in 2004 and 2006.

And Barack Obama’s lawyers have made a practice of aggressively challenging conservative groups that attack their candidate. Independent election law attorneys have warned that the fines could be much stiffer for malfeasance, given precedents that were established last year.

The amount raised by such groups playing on the federal and state levels remains impressive. But it has dipped, down to $407 million from $470 million in 2004, according to the latest count by Times researcher Maloy Moore and data analyst Sandra Poindexter.

While conservatives are much less active, organized labor is using the groups heavily. They are tailor-made for unions, which raise huge amounts of small donations from hundreds of thousands of donors.

In the election, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and Service Employees International Union are the two biggest spenders on 527 groups -- $30.9 million by AFSCME and $26.3 million by SEIU. Much of it is being used to pummel John McCain.

A handful of individuals also are playing big, but not as big as in years past.

Wall Street billionaire George Soros has given $4.9 million in this election cycle, down from $18.4 million four years ago.

Hollywood producer Stephen Bing has spent $5.08 million on some of the same liberal organizations. He too has fallen off, from $13.4 million in 2004.

On the conservative side, Sheldon Adelson, billionaire chairman of the Las Vegas Sands, has shelled out $5.25 million, giving much of the funding for American Solutions for Winning the Future, a group founded by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

-- Dan Morain

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