Crowley Political Report

The Des Moines Register is reporting that Jeb Bush's flailing Iowa campaign is canceling it television ad buys in Iowa. 

From the Register:

Jeb Bush's campaign is canceling its Iowa television advertising buy and shifting money to double staff on the ground in January, the final month before the high-stakes Iowa caucuses.

The news will raise questions about whether the former Florida governor might pull out of Iowa given his fifth-place status here, with just 6 percent support of likely GOP caucusgoers.

That's not the case, Bush campaign manager Danny Diaz told The Des Moines Register.

The number of Iowa paid staffers who make personal contact with voters will be boosted from 11 to more than 20, including its Hispanic outreach director, he said.

. . . Diaz said the campaign is removing $3 million in previously reserved TV time: an Iowa buy of about $1 million and a January buy in South Carolina of about $2 million. It's instead increasing direct voter contact with a total of 60 additional staffers.

Bush's Right to Rise PAC has spent heavily in the early states - especially New Hampshire. So far, polling has suggested that while the Bush campaign and his PAC have far outspent his rivals, the ads have not had the desired impact.

Right to Rise continues to have ads in the early primary and caucus states.

See the Des Moines Register story here.

This comes on the heels of reports today that Bush is essentially closing his Miami headquarters and moving almost all of the staff there to early primary states.

Both moves suggest the campaign is deeply worried and abandoning what it once thought was an winning strategy.

Is it too little too late?