Bush spends millions on TV but has yet to rise in GOP race

DUBUQUE, Iowa (AP) — Jeb Bush and his allies are spending circles around his rivals for the Republican presidential nomination.

Having fallen from summer front-runner to autumn afterthought, the former Florida governor made deep spending cuts to his campaign operation in October.

Yet as December begins, Bush remains mired in single digits — including in New Hampshire — in a race that continues to be dominated by political novices, most notably billionaire real estate mogul Donald Trump.

Bush's most loyal supporters argue the advertising, mostly financed by an outside group known as a super PAC, has paid off by helping stabilize a campaign that was losing ground.

The pro-Bush super PAC, called Right to Rise, has spent about $26 million on TV and radio commercials in the past 11 weeks, according to Kantar Media's CMAG advertising tracker.

When Bush gathered his top donors in Houston in October at an event that featured former Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, many suggested that the candidate's poll numbers would improve by the end of November — once those ads had time to penetrate.

Bush and his supporters are making the case that, in the wake of the Nov. 13 attacks in Paris, voters will take another look his message of experience — which they hope will eventually overtake interest in outsider candidates such as Trump and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson.