Secretary of State Trey Grayson is increasing his television presence as he fights for the Republican Senate nomination against eye surgeon Rand Paul.

Grayson in the past week spent $140,000 to air three different television ads in the Louisville, Lexington and Bowling Green markets.

Before that buy, Grayson’s camp had spent just $25,000 on television airtime.

Paul, who previously had dropped about $100,000 on television time, answered Grayson’s commercials with another $93,000 worth of airtime in the same three markets.

The primary is May 18, and the latest polling shows that Paul is ahead.

A Bluegrass poll conducted for the Louisville Courier-Journal and WHAS by SurveyUSA found Paul supported by 42 percent of Republicans surveyed; Grayson was favored by 27 percent.

On the Democratic side, Lt. Gov. Daniel Mongiardo led Attorney General Jack Conway, 45 percent to 27 percent.

The poll of 454 likely GOP voters and 590 likely Democratic voters was released Sunday. It had a margin of error of 4.1 points.