Ex-Rep. Tom Campbell (R) is cutting back on TV advertising, switching strategies as some opponents wonder whether Campbell’s surprisingly strong campaign is running low on funds.

Campbell will not be on TV this coming week. And he has cut his ad buys for the final 2 weeks of the campaign significantly, according to sources who watch campaign ad spending; data shows Campbell has purchased $286K in ads over the last 2 weeks, less than the $393K he had previously reserved.

Instead, Campbell’s campaign will send an oversized mailer to 1.1M voters this week, according to his campaign.

From the Carly Fiorina campaign via e-mail:

Over here at Team Carly, while we are watching our ads on the airwaves increase in frequency, reports over the last couple of days confirm that Tom Campbell has canceled his television AND his radio time – all of it – for this week.
 
The Campbell camp is exhaling a lot of hot air as they struggle to come up with any good reason for why, but we sure have been amused by the excuses so far:

1.     Campbell is going to move numbers with that larger-than-life photo of himself that he’s mailing Republicans. Newsflash, we too are sending mail to Republicans statewide…and it may or may not include a photo of Tom as well.

2.     TV won’t break through because of the Steve-Meg slugfest. True, Tom’s less than $100,000 buy for this week really would not have been competition for Steve and Meg.

3.     They are husbanding resources for an ad blitz in the final few weeks. Could be, but it seems if that were true, they would have reserved more than $200,000 in time over the final two weeks of the primary campaign.

4.     They are ahead and are therefore holding resources for the general. Sounds like a bold move when more than one-third of voters are undecided in the primary.

5.     Carly has bought $2.2 million in TV and has not moved in the polls. First, the majority of our ad buy has yet to air and more importantly, the polling out there on the primary race does not account for the time we have been on the air. But nice try on that one, Team Campbell.

6.     And finally, my personal favorite: Tom is ahead in the polls so they don’t need to spend as much on TV. We really hope they believe their own spin there – because if they do, they certainly are not looking at the same polling we are!
 
Let’s be honest here. Tom would be on TV and radio if he had the money.
 
And, while Tom keeps inventing excuses, Carly keeps getting more endorsements. Today, she is in Orange County (in AD 70 to be precise) picking up the endorsements of a slew of local elected officials and prominent business organizations including Orange County Supervisor Bill Campbell, the Orange County Business Council and the Hispanic 100. She has a full public schedule the remainder of the week. Meanwhile, our statewide network of volunteers made thousands of calls to Republican voters over the weekend and will be phone banking daily between now and June 8.

Even the LEFT is able to put 2 and 2 together: