The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee-- the DCCC--- on Wednesday disclosed that it is trimming back Chicago television time that had been banked--about $740,000 in time reserved.

The DCCC--the House Democratic political operation-- had reserved about $3 million in Chicago television time for Democratic nominees Tammy Duckworth (8th) Brad Schneider (10th) and Bill Foster (11th.)

Clarification: Speculation about the reason given for reducing the buy: Because Democrat Tammy Duckworth is in good shape to win the eighth congressional district seat over Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.)

The way it works: The DCCC--as do other campaign committees--reserves time for candidates way in advance. Whether the money gets spent depends on how a candidate is doing. The political shops don't throw money in races where a candidate is running very strong or very poorly.

Schneider and Foster still have chunks of DCCC money in the pipeline.