Sen. John Kerry has scaled back his television ads in Colorado this week and scrapped a planned campaign stop in Denver. The Democratic presidential candidate will refocus his time and ad dollars on more hotly contested swing states such as Ohio and Florida, although campaign officials insist that they will continue to fight for Colorado.The candidates have run closely this year in Colorado, a state Bush won easily in 2000. The state has been among the final dozen battlegrounds on both campaigns' target lists this month. Several polls recently showed Bush opening a small lead, although a Reuters/Zogby poll had Kerry slightly ahead on Sunday. Kerry visited Pueblo on Saturday. He had planned to hit Denver on Tuesday or Wednesday, but his campaign canceled the trip on Friday.
Officials decided to reduce television ads this weekend, thinking their early ads had given the senator a lift - and that Colorado's airwaves, cluttered with political pitches, offered less opportunity than less-inundated markets in other states. The campaign will continue to bring surrogates into Colorado to stump for Kerry, to advertise on Spanish-language radio and to push an aggressive get-out-the-vote effort. The Democratic National Committee will continue to run ads in Colorado on Kerry's behalf at "saturation levels," a spokesman said. Steve Haro, Kerry's Colorado spokesman, said it's "just not the case" that the senator is giving up here. |