September 16, 2014 01:31 PM UTC

RGA Already Done in Colorado? Time Will Tell

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• by: Colorado Pols

Take note of 9NEWS' Brandon Rittiman's report today on the new ad out from GOP gubernatorial nominee Bob Beauprez–not necessarily for Beauprez's sweet nothingburger of a positive new TV spot (above), but for what he says about the Republican Governors Association's spending on this race:

Republican gubernatorial challenger Bob Beauprez hit Colorado airwaves for the first time this week as a key GOP group will go quiet in the TV ad battle against incumbent Gov. John Hickenlooper (D-Colorado).

The opening TV ad for the Beauprez campaign brings up education as its focus.

The timing of Beauprez' first ad coincides with what appears to be the end (for now) of TV ad buys in Colorado from the Republican Governor's Association. [Pols emphasis]

FCC records on Tuesday showed the group had no TV time beyond this week.

RGA spokesperson Jon Thompson declined to say whether the group is finished buying TV time on behalf of Beauprez, saying "we don't discuss future ad buys or our ad strategy publicly."

It's certainly possible that the RGA will spend more money on behalf of Beauprez, but it's worth noting that most of the available television ad time between now and the election has already been snapped up. Stations could still sell some ad time to third-party groups, perhaps, but at this point in the election cycle, those spots would be very, very, very expensive. What this could otherwise indicate, a deprioritization of Beauprez in favor of what the RGA considers more winnable races, may be more likely than publicly available polling indicates. For several weeks, there have been widespread rumors that internal polling in the Colorado gubernatorial race does not look good for the GOP–either up front, or especially once voters are given a few key negatives about Beauprez our readers already know well.

If those rumors are accurate, we assume Chris Christie and the RGA know it too…