Campbell goes back on the air in effort to catch Fiorina

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Tom Campbell is back on the air.

After falling behind Carly Fiorina, his deep-pocketed Republican rival for the U.S. Senate nomination, Campbell’s cash-strapped campaign said he was pulling his ads from the air Tuesday and would focus on other forms of voter contact.

One political analyst said halting TV advertising in the last few days of the campaign was ‘as close as you get to the white flag of surrender.”

But touting last week’s USC/Los Angeles Times poll showing Campbell could beat incumbent Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer in November, Campbell has apparently decided that forsaking TV was a mistake.

In an e-mail, his spokesman, Jamie Fisfis, said Campbell’s new 30-second spot, highlighting his electability against Boxer, would run statewide on cable stations and on “some” Los Angeles network stations. He did not elaborate on the buy.

‘I do have something neither of my opponents can offer,’ Campbell says in the spot. ‘The Los Angeles Times announced a poll that shows me beating Sen. Barbara Boxer by seven points. Carly Fiorina loses to Barbara Boxer by six points. Let’s not lose this historic opportunity to replace Sen. Barbara Boxer.’

Campbell does not mention that the poll also showed Fiorina beating him by about 15 points in the primary match-up.

Campbell, a libertarian who favors gay marriage and abortion rights, has tried to convince voters that as a social moderate, he is the only Republican who can end Boxer’s tenure.

Fiorina, the former chief executive of Hewlett-Packard Co., opposes gay marriage and abortion and has said that voters are more interested in jobs and the economy this season than the social issues that have often driven elections and voter turnout.

-- Robin Abcarian