US presidential candidate to deploy tech exec campaign army

McCain and Obama are seeking tech sector backing but one is rallying the IT troops

The battle for the White House is seeing the tech sector being courted by both US presidential candidates

The IT industry is in no mood for change when it comes to picking political leaders and it appears it will not be backing any US presidential candidate that offers it.

Democratic hopeful Barack Obama will have to look elsewhere in the business world for support as this week his rival John McCain plans to unleash a "tech 100" army of IT industry executives who back his "economic surge" plans.

The Wall Street Journal says that well-known republicans such as Cisco CEO John Chambers and Sun Microsystems boss Scott McNealy will be joined by 98 more like-minded individuals from the tech sector.

McCain has already paired up with ex-HP boss Carly Fiorina, who was named as a possible vice presidential running mate, and also counts Meg Whitman of eBay as a backer.

Both candidates are said to be desperately courting Google boss Eric Schmidt.