Democratic gubernatorial candidate Creigh Deeds deployed three television spots Monday, two of them targeting his Republican opponent’s 20-year-old master’s thesis.

The ad blitz in media markets across Virginia, including the expensive Washington area, signals that Deeds, in the final weeks of the campaign, has no intent to waver from a strategy based primarily on social issues. The state senator has closed on Bob McDonnell in recent polls after an all-out assault on McDonnell’s 1989 master’s thesis, in which the Republican criticized feminists, working women, gays and co-habitators.