Washington (CNN) Jeb Bush's campaign is drastically shifting its resources from the airwaves to the field, scrapping large advertising buys in early-voting states in hopes of reviving his floundering bid for the presidency . 
 
 Officials told CNN Wednesday that the campaign will cancel $3 million in reserved television advertising in Iowa and South Carolina and is preparing to spend its money deploying upwards of 60 campaign staffers from its Miami headquarters to the first four voting states -- Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada. The move will double the staffer presence in New Hampshire to more than 40. 
 
 The dramatic spending shift comes as Bush redoubles his efforts in New Hampshire, where the former Florida governor is locked in a battle with other establishment favorites for top billing in a state that traditionally favors moderate candidates. Bush's super PAC still plans a $3.6 million Iowa TV campaign between now and the caucuses on February 1, but Bush's reduced airtime will nevertheless raise questions about how hard he plans to compete in Iowa. 
 
 "It would be a mistake to assume that this is some pulling out of Iowa," said Dave Kochel, Bush's top strategist and a longtime Iowa hand. "However, we know that Iowa is a challenge." 
 
 Bush himself downplayed the move, which was first reported by the Des Moines Register, Wednesday night after a campaign event in Lexington, South Carolina. 
 
 "We have a super PAC that is advertising on television at a rate that is comparable to any other campaign, if not more. And we are reallocating our resources to voter contact and a ground game that will be second to none. It already is," Bush said, adding, "Having the best organization on the ground is how you win." 
 
 But Wednesday's announcement is a far trip from the "shock and awe" fundraising juggernaut that Bush and his allies once planned to build to wow the Republican establishment and donor class. After stockpiling $100 million into a super PAC and raising cash for the campaign at a field-leading clip in the opening weeks of the campaign, Bush's campaign on Wednesday recognized that the campaign's bank account is not all-powerful and that television is limited in its ability to woo voters. 
 
 Bush and his allies long thought that his financial advantage -- as seen in the warchests of both his campaign and his super PAC -- would give him dominance in the Republican primary. But his ad spending has failed to move the needle, and he remains mired in the middle of the GOP field dominated by a man who has spent close to nothing on paid media: Donald Trump. 
 
 Bush placed seventh with just 3% support in a CNN/ORC poll released last week. 
 
 The clearing of Bush's Miami headquarters will send scores of aides to knock on doors, and Bush's campaign on Wednesday was eager to portray the change as merely a recognition that the well-funded super PAC can handle paid advertising on its own. Bush had made early advertising reservations remaining for slightly over $1 million in Iowa, and slightly under $2 million in South Carolina, according to the campaign. No TV reservations are being changed in New Hampshire. 
 
 The campaign will send 10 paid aides to Iowa, 20 to New Hampshire, 10 to South Carolina, and a remaining 10 to Nevada. 
 
 "Frankly, people are tired of hearing from us on the phone. Our response rate is much better when we get people face to face," said Brett Doster, Bush's senior strategist in South Carolina. 
 
 Campaigns routinely increase the size of field staff as voting approaches, but canceling long-reserved TV time is an unusual step that hints at possible worries about remaining hard dollars. In October, the Bush campaign slashed salaries and reorganized its payroll to try and make ends meet, perhaps the first warning sign that a financial problem was brewing. 
 
 Now, the campaign will essentially forfeit the television space to his super PAC, Right to Rise, which cannot coordinate advertising buys or messages with the official campaign. And aides for that group were signaling Wednesday that they were prepared to pick up the slack on the airwaves, pledging more buys that will make up for the absence of the official campaign. 
 
 Easy for us - R2R - to beef up Iowa TV. Doing big radio, digital and mail. Plus some of our own ground. 1/2 https://t.co/X5WnryQcS4 — mike murphy (@murphymike) December 30, 2015 
 
 "Easy for us - R2R - to beef up Iowa TV. Doing big radio, digital and mail. Plus some of our own ground," tweeted Mike Murphy, Right to Rise's head and Bush's longtime consigliere. "We're doing something fun re: IA soon that I doubt any other campaign is doing. Stay tuned to Twitter. @r2rusa ❤️ IA." ||||| Jeb Bush's campaign, searching for momentum in a race that hasn’t gone its way, is deploying nearly all of its staff in its Miami headquarters to early states and shifting millions of dollars in TV ad reservations. 
 
 On a Wednesday afternoon staff-wide conference call, top campaign officials, including campaign manager Danny Diaz, informed employees that the deployment would be staggered throughout the month of January. The campaign is expected to dispatch between 50 and 60 staffers in Miami and elsewhere, with 20 going to New Hampshire and 10 or more going to Iowa, South Carolina and Nevada. 
 
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 One participant on the call quoted Diaz as saying that “damn near everybody” would be departing Miami for early primary states. Diaz, too, would be getting deployed, he told the staff. 
 
 The campaign also said it was making major adjustments in its TV spending, canceling $3 million in reservations and directing it to field efforts and voter contact. It will scrap over $1 million of TV spending in Iowa, a state that he’s been trailing in, and around $2 million in South Carolina. 
 
 “We’re making a strategic resource reallocation,” said Tim Miller, a Bush spokesman. 
 
 Late Wednesday afternoon, Bush, along with Diaz and top campaign fundraiser Heather Larrison, held a conference call with top donors and bundlers to explain the staff redeployment and to provide a general update on the campaign. 
 
 Bush fielded several questions and gave an upbeat assessment of the campaign's fundraising performance in the fourth quarter of 2015, which will end on Thursday —though he did not provide an exact figure of how much he had raised. 
 
 Political observers will be looking closely at Bush's cash on hand when the campaign files its required reports toward the end of January. 
 
 The strategic shakeup comes as Bush is mounting a major push in New Hampshire, which his advisers consider a must-win state. The former Florida governor, once the frontrunner of the unwieldy GOP field, is making a last-ditch effort to right a campaign that has faltered despite a hefty cash pile and an establishment pedigree. 
 
 Wednesday’s announcement marked the Bush campaign’s third major overhaul. In June, the organization surprised the political world when it said that Diaz, a hard-charging veteran operative, would serve as its manager instead of David Kochel, an Iowa-based strategist who had long been seen as the likely occupant of the post. Then, in October, beset by lagging poll numbers and mediocre fundraising, the campaign announced that it was slashing staff salaries and firing a number of consultants. 
 
 The latest decisions reflect a calculation on Bush’s part that, in a presidential campaign defined by loud voices and wall-to-wall media coverage, TV commercials are having less of an effect than they traditionally do. While Bush has benefited from more TV spending than any other candidate, his poll numbers nationally and in early primary states have disappointed. 
 
 Advisers said that money would be redirected to a variety of activities in key primary states. Much of it will go towards increasing its staff presence in Iowa, where the campaign currently counts 11 paid staffers, in New Hampshire, where it has 20, South Carolina, where it has seven, and Nevada, where it has nine. 
 
 Aside from increasing its spending on field efforts, the campaign said it would boost its spending on radio advertising in New Hampshire and South Carolina — including on conservative talk shows. 
 
 For its TV presence, the campaign will find itself increasingly reliant on Right to Rise, the super PAC that has been airing tens of millions of dollars in advertisements on Bush’s behalf. The group, which operates independently of the campaign, has reserved advertising time in all four early states. 
 
 A Right to Rise spokesman, Paul Lindsay, said Wednesday afternoon that the super PAC would be “evaluating progress on the ground and augmenting our TV buys in early states where we see a need.” 
 
 The Bush campaign is also seeking out volunteers — including alumni of the George W. Bush administration. On Tuesday, Brian McCormack, a former staffer in the George W. Bush White House who now works at the Washington, DC-based Edison Electric Institute, sent out an email to Bush administration alum asking them to help out Jeb Bush’s early state efforts. 
 
 “The political season is about to shift into high gear which means it’s time to make your plans to visit Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and/or Nevada!” McCormack wrote. “What could be a better resolution for 2016 than working to put a Republican in the White House?” 
 
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– Amid talk of a comeback, Jeb Bush's campaign has abruptly changed strategy—and some staffers at its Miami headquarters have had to go shopping for winter clothes. The Des Moines Register reports that the Bush campaign has canceled $3 million in TV ads in Iowa and South Carolina and is using the money to send dozens of staffers to those states and to New Hampshire and Nevada to contact voters directly. Sources tell Politico that campaign manager Danny Diaz told dozens of campaign workers in Florida that "damn near everybody"—including himself—would soon be leaving for early-voting states. Bush was at a campaign event in South Carolina on Wednesday night, and CNN reports that he downplayed the strategy change. "We have a super PAC that is advertising on television at a rate that is comparable to any other campaign, if not more," he said. "And we are reallocating our resources to voter contact and a ground game that will be second to none. It already is. Having the best organization on the ground is how you win." Bush's chief strategist tells the Register that far from giving up in Iowa, the candidate will now have "the largest paid ground operation in the first four states"—and will have more to spend on TV alternatives like digital ads and ads on conservative radio shows. The Register notes that since the pro-Bush super PAC Right to Rise has booked $3.9 million in ads in Iowa alone, Iowans will still be seeing plenty of Jeb ads.