SACRAMENTO (Legal Newsline) - California Attorney General and gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown has booked more than $1 million in airtime on television stations around the state next week, according to campaign media buyers.

The Los Angeles Times reported that Brown's campaign booked the time Wednesday morning, but Brown spokesman Sterling Clifford said the campaign may not hit the airwaves until later.

Clifford told the Times the campaign still had time to cancel its purchase, estimated at about $1.2 million statewide.

Brown, a Democrat, is neck-and-neck with Republican opponent Meg Whitman, the former eBay CEO.

Up to this point, Brown's campaign has not spent any money on campaign ads -- even as Whitman's campaign spending has topped the $100 million mark.

However, "independent expenditure groups" have spent more than $7 million on Brown's behalf this summer to try to limit Whitman's advantage, the Times reported.

The booking of airtime also comes as union backers of Brown announced they were scaling back their television advertising after this week.

From Legal Newsline: Reach Jessica Karmasek by e-mail at jessica@legalnewsline.com.