WILMINGTON, Del. — A half-hour television ad for Republican Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell was finally being aired on a Delaware public access channel after a day of delays.

The tea party favorite’s campaign blamed the channel for the delays and suggested that politics was involved in the mix up, but Tim Qualls, an independent producer who booked time for the program on Comcast’s channel 28, said it didn’t run as scheduled because O’Donnell’s campaign was late getting him the video.

Qualls said they had a Friday deadline for getting him the video but didn’t deliver it until Sunday night.

Qualls, a Republican who said he voted for O’Donnell in the primary, called on O’Donnell to clarify that the campaign was at fault so the incident doesn’t hurt his reputation. He said he has been bombarded by nasty phone and e-mail messages, some including threats.

O’Donnell’s campaign released a statement Monday afternoon calling it a “misunderstanding” that also involved a third-party broker.

“Mr. Qualls is being incredibly cooperative now,” the statement said. “We are sincerely sorry for any misunderstanding that has transpired.”