Ted Cruz campaign manager Jeff Roe downplayed competition with Rubio for voters. | Getty Ad shift: Cruz moves to quash Rubio, not Trump



DES MOINES — Ted Cruz has flipped his TV strategy heading into the crucial final weekend before the Iowa caucuses, rerouting money from negative ads that had been slamming Donald Trump to hit Marco Rubio instead.

The last-minute change is a sign that, even as both the Rubio and Cruz campaigns have publicly denied it, Rubio is increasingly a threat to Cruz in the state. The shift to anti-Rubio ads was first reported by The New York Times.


"When a candidate's being attacked, obviously someone's worried about you. So obviously Sen. Cruz is worried about my candidacy,” Rubio told reporters in Iowa on Friday.

Cruz is now running a rotation of at least four ads in Iowa’s final days, according to a person familiar with the buy. The first hits Rubio on immigration and features audio from Rush Limbaugh. It debuted on Thursday and contains 2010 tape of Rubio talking about amnesty that was also broadcast during Thursday night’s GOP debate.

The second labels Rubio “the Republican Obama” — and closes with an image of Rubio’s face made to appear as if in the iconic Obama poster.



The other two closing Cruz ads are a testimonial spot from Rep. Steve King, one of Cruz’s key endorsers in the state, and a minute-long spot touting the candidate as a “principled conservative fighter.”

For days, Cruz’s operation has tried to downplay any Rubio momentum in the state, with the goal of portraying the contest as a two-man, heavyweight bout between the Texas senator and New York businessman. They have told Iowa activists and Republicans repeatedly that a vote for anyone else is a wasted vote.

Only hours before the buy shift became apparent, Cruz campaign manager Jeff Roe had downplayed competition with Rubio for voters.

"You know we don’t overlap as much as people probably think,” Roe said at a Bloomberg breakfast. "When we look at our Venn diagram of the people that we share votes with, it’s much more overlap with Trump, it’s much more overlap with [Ben] Carson, it’s much less overlap with Rubio.”

During that breakfast, Roe had predicted a Cruz victory — and a distant third-place showing for Rubio.

“No,” Roe said, when asked whether Rubio would be a close third, before following up, “What’s close?” Four or five percentage points, a reporter said.

“No,” Roe repeated.

But Rubio himself was still trying to dampen expectations. Asked if he could finish second, the Florida senator said, "Obviously, Ted is the frontrunner here: he's spent a lot of time and money and has 10,000 volunteers working on his behalf on the ground. We saw his campaign talking over a month ago about how they were going to win comfortably. We're not going to make those kinds of predictions."

In Ringsted, Iowa, where Cruz began his day with a retail politicking stop, he seemed as eager to draw contrasts with Rubio as he was with Trump, whom he barely mentioned.

“If we’re tired of getting burned by politicians who claim to be against amnesty, who campaign against amnesty, and then go to Washington and join the Democrats to support amnesty, then we need to look to if they have a proven record,” he said, taking an unmistakable swipe at Rubio, an echo of comments he made on the debate stage Thursday.

Across the state in Muscatine, Rubio had a comeback at the ready.

"I think people are starting to learn the truth about Ted on immigration and a host of other issues that shows a history of calculation,” he said. “And I think it's starting to hurt him a little bit. I mean, we'll see what it all turns into."

