Rudy pulling out of NH?

The Nashua Telegraph is suggesting that Rudy Giuliani is pulling television ads from New Hampshire media markets. If the theory is right that Rudy splits votes with John McCain, then this should help McCain in NH. Presumably Rudy is going to spend the money in South Carolina or Florida, where he is struggling. Anyways, all the details from the Telegraph:

Pulling out

Giuliani is moving resources (read $$$) out of the New Hampshire media market.

Giuliani scaled way back on his TV buys on Boston stations for this week compared to last week.

It’s important to note that Giuliani didn’t alter his high level of ad volume on WMUR.

Romney leads (what a shock!) the Republican field with about $250,000 a week on WMUR. Giuliani is in the range of $180,000 a week and McCain is third with roughly $120,000.

Huckabee began his first New Hampshire advertising buy with about $40,000 a week on WMUR.

In the case of Boston TV however, records confirm Giuliani’s team purchased one large number of TV spots and then trimmed it back or canceled it six days later.

The examples:

• WHDH, Channel 7 – $102,745 in ads bought Dec. 5; changed to $40,700 worth of ads bought Dec. 11.

• WLVI, sister station, Channel 56 – $20,300 in ads bought Dec. 5, that ad buy canceled Dec. 11.

In other cases, the per-week spending on other Boston stations previously by the Giuliani campaign will be considerably less than it had been.

Other examples:

• WFXT, Fox – Had spent $67,000 a week before; now $20,000 a week.

• WCVB, Channel 5 – Previous ad total cut by 50 percent.

• WBZ, Channel 4 – Cut by 50 percent.

• WSBK – Cut by 50 percent.

This could be part of a strategy to shift more ad money to Florida, where some polls show his large lead slipping, or to Michigan, which votes a week after New Hampshire and is Romney’s birth state.

An attempt to reach the Giuliani campaign for comment was unsuccessful.

Giuliani will be back on Monday with one public stop at Goss International in Dover. Spies report that Foster’s Daily Democrat has secured the first editorial board interview with Giuliani on the same day.