DES MOINES — Marco Rubio’s presidential campaign has altered a long-planned television advertising buy in South Carolina while moving to boost resources in New Hampshire, where the race for the Republican nomination shifts after Monday evening’s Iowa caucuses.
The Rubio campaign confirmed to the Washington Examiner that a pre-order of television advertising time placed in July called for the Florida senator to increase current spending on South Carolina airwaves beginning this week, from $300,000 per week to $800,000. After reviewing total Palmetto State ad spending by other campaigns and super PACs, Rubio’s campaign has instead chosen to hold steady there at $300,000 per week and invest an additional $100,000 on television in New Hampshire, which votes a week from Tuesday and constitutes a key test for the senator.
“Our original plans had us increase our South Carolina buy this week,” Rubio campaign senior adviser Todd Harris told the Washington Examiner Monday morning. “We’ve decided to hold steady at our current rate of spend and push back the increase because we’re already at parity with everyone else on television.”
The Rubio campaign made a series of pre-orders of television time in key primary states last summer because purchasing the advertising in advance allowed it to pay less money than if it had waited until the fall or winter. It turned out to be a good move, as the senator has faced a barrage of negative advertising from opposition candidates and super PACs to the tune of at least $25 million since December, more than any other GOP candidate.
Strategically, the Rubio campaign has decided that maintaining ad spending in South Carolina was a wiser use of resources. Combined with the $700,000 per week being invested on televison there by Conservative Solutions PAC, the super PAC supporting Rubio, he remains on par with the roughly $1 million per week in advertising being run by the campaigns and supportive super PACs of Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. Front-runner Donald Trump, the New York celebrity businessman leading most polls, is spending about $275,000 per week there.
Although the Cruz and Bush forces have been relentlessly attacking Rubio on the air across the early primary states, Rubio’s campaign does not think the pressure warrants raising the total pro-Rubio spending in South Carolina to $1.5 million per week at this stage, which would be well more than any of his competitors are investing there. The $400,000 per week in savings the campaign nets by not increasing its planned ad buy there should come in handy as attention shifts to New Hampshire.
The Rubio campaign seemed aware that the senator’s opponents might attempt to paint this move as a sign of weakness, or suggest that Rubio didn’t have the funds pay for the increase in ad time in South Carolina. But the senator’s team dismissed that out of hand, saying that the campaign structured its pre-order seven months ago under the assumption that other campaigns would be spending more in the Palmetto State by now. Harris said the Rubio campaign wasn’t going to invest resources just to score stylistic points.
“Unlike Right to Rise,” he said, referring to the Bush super PAC that has spent tens of millions of dollars, “we’re not in the practice of setting money on fire just to watch it burn.
