- The Washington Times - Wednesday, December 30, 2015

Republican presidential contender Jeb Bush is rejiggering his approach to the 2016 presidential race, shifting resources away from television advertising and toward beef up its ground troops in the key early primary states, according to the The Des Moines Register.

The former Florida governor’s campaign said it plans to change things up in January in hopes of bolstering his chances in the run-up to the earlier nomination contests, the newspaper reported Wednesday.

Campaign officials told the Register they are pulling back money that had been set aside to reserve air time for television ads in Iowa and South Carolina, and they will instead deploy 60 staffers to the early primary states from their Miami headquarters.

The plan is to boost their team from 11 to 20 staffers in Iowa and 20 to 40 staffers in New Hampshire. The campaign said they will add 10 staffers in South Carolina and Nevada.

Dave Kochel, a senior adviser, told the Register that, “This will give Jeb by far the largest paid ground operation in the first four states.”

Mr. Bush has struggled to live up to major expectations since he entered the race. He is running fifth in Iowa and sixth in New Hampshire, the first two stops in the nomination battle.

• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.

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