Posted on 10/24/2011 6:17:21 AM PDT by Servant of the Cross
The former speaker launches an unlikely comeback.
In June, after his top advisers bolted, Newt Gingrich was supposed to be finished. Four months later, after a series of sharp debates, his poll numbers are climbing and his coffers are stuffed. Behind the scenes, his aides aim to capitalize on the resurrection.
“There is plenty of room,” says R. C. Hammond, the campaign spokesman. He bets that by early January, when New Hampshire and Iowa are blanketed by snow, Gingrich’s “tortoise” campaign will inch ahead.
That optimism is backed up by cash, Hammond says. In the past week, the campaign has raised more money — nearly $200,000 — than it collected in July, the month the campaign nearly collapsed. The capital infusion has enabled Gingrich to hire early-state staffers, such as tea-party leader Andrew Hemingway in New Hampshire, and produce a slew of Web videos.
It is also erasing, albeit slowly, what has been a looming problem: the campaign’s debts. According to federal election filings, Gingrich reported over $1 million in debts through September 30, a figure nearly identical to when his initial senior team departed.
In presidential politics, such a hole can knock you out of the race; debt was, for example, a major factor in Tim Pawlenty’s withdrawal. Gingrich’s campaign has endured, Hammond says, by subsisting on the approximately $800,000 it has raised since July.
Gingrich’s inner circle, once a high-profile coterie of wonks and politicos dubbed “Newt Inc.,” was pared down. In recent months, only a handful of loyalists have remained on payroll, and they often work from home to save on expenses.
At one point, when prospects were dim, staffers shared a couple of Verizon wireless cards for their laptops, in order to avoid paying for office-wide Internet service.
Gingrich, for his part, has not flown on chartered aircraft since May, taking commercial flights to Des Moines and Manchester from his home in northern Virginia. He often travels with a lone staffer, if that. On the ground, grassroots activists are coordinating volunteers.
With about $500,000 in the bank, “we’ve been running lean,” Hammond says, and with much of the race centered on the debates, “that’s been the focus.”
Indeed, with dwindling funds, the campaign never attempted to engineer any grand comeback strategy, even when things were bleak and closing shop remained a distinct possibility. The immediate goal was surviving.
During a normal week, Gingrich would appear at events — maybe a speech in Iowa and another in South Carolina — but he would never spend weeks on the trail, burning cash. The little things that lead to strong debates — reviewing news items and making sure Gingrich had a Diet Coke before he went on stage — became priorities for his aides.
Back home in Virginia, Gingrich would, for the most part, keep quiet, in order to save money. Attending the next cattle call or debate was important, but unrelated political events and other potential commitments were axed from the schedule. His press load was lightened, with few interviews granted beyond Fox News and friendly radio outlets in primary states or the occasional Sunday-morning talk program.
When not on the phone with Amy Pass, his top money raiser, about fresh leads, he’d map his updated “Contract for America,” call close friends, and eye how “Lean Six Sigma,” a waste-reduction program popular with corporations, could be implemented within the federal government. He’d read and write history, taking notes about potential stories to weave into his public remarks or debate rhetoric.
Gingrich’s approach, his aides say, was to keep the entire campaign on a low simmer, slowly building support but never scrambling to join the news cycle. It took a few weeks for the campaign and candidate to wean themselves off near-daily television interviews. But for Gingrich, long a Beltway fixture with a penchant for pungent one-liners, it was a must. The campaign wanted him to avoid “becoming a reactor to events or competitors,” as one insider puts it, and reestablish his “authority” on policy and governing, not his abilities as a political pundit.
In the eyes of many Republicans, Gingrich had become a damaged candidate — respected, to be sure, but unworthy of support. He was, according to conventional wisdom, an aging veteran on the sidelines, nothing more. That had to be corrected. So running against the press, which largely dismissed his candidacy, became a key theme.
At first, Gingrich lashed out due to exasperation on the trail, irked by the media’s focus on his much-discussed Tiffany’s account and the summer meltdown. But things began to shift in Ames in mid-August, after Gingrich criticized Fox News moderator Chris Wallace for playing “Mickey Mouse games” and asking “gotcha questions” about his campaign.
As they heard the Iowa crowd roar at the comeuppance, Gingrich’s top advisers —Hammond, Pass, communications director Joe DeSantis, his wife Callista, campaign manager Michael Krull — sensed opportunity. If the former House speaker could speak up, with gusto, about the media’s horse-race obsession, perhaps he could fire up on-the-fence Republicans who agreed with the critique.
“Appealing on an emotional level was important,” says one source. “He knew that he needed to address the electability question, noting that with his record, to not consider him viable was an absurd media-driven narrative, not the GOP consensus.”
On September 7, at the GOP debate in California, Gingrich followed through, blasting the moderators, including Politico’s John Harris, for attempting to divide the field. “I’m frankly not interested in your effort to get Republicans fighting each other,” Gingrich replied when pressed to differentiate between the health-care positions of Mitt Romney and Rick Perry. “You would like to puff this up into some giant thing. The fact is, every person up here understands Obamacare is a disaster.”
Days later, at a CNN debate, Gingrich hammered the point again, wagging his finger at the moderators for making so much of the spat between Perry and Romney on Social Security: “I’m not particularly worried about Governor Perry and Governor Romney frightening the American people when President Obama scares them every single day.”
The response to the slams, coupled with some sharp policy jabs, was immediate, campaign sources say, and to this day remains the campaign’s sustenance — it fuels interest, garners headlines, and generates donations. The buzz, of course, is far from enough for Gingrich to win, or even get close to, the nomination. But in the minds of his advisers, it has kept him on stage — an achievement of its own.
Of course, “we’re never going to have Romney or Perry money,” cautions a source close to Gingrich. “Regardless, I think we’re going to have enough to compete because we’re going to continue to be a much lighter, leaner campaign than the rest. We plan to make up for it with energy.”
Energy, buzz, and debate acclaim may not be enough. Gingrich’s poll numbers remain steady, but unlike Herman Cain, Rick Perry, and Michele Bachmann, he has not had a moment where he has leaped above the rest. Gingrich insiders shrug this off, saying they’d rather peak late than early.
Still, there has not been a breakout. Only now, after countless debates, are they seeing the beginning of a boomlet. A Cain-like poll gain is hard to imagine. More likely would be a Cain fade, a Perry fade, and an eleventh-hour Gingrich bubble, should he continue to impress and connect with social conservatives in Iowa, in spite of his marital history.
As November nears, the RealClearPolitics average of national GOP polls shows Gingrich within reach of the top tier. He’s holding onto fourth place with 9.2 percent support, only 3 points behind Perry. And two October surveys — one by Public Policy Polling and another by Rasmussen — show him in double digits.
Even with the positive debate response, however, Gingrich’s nose remains pressed to the glass, as he hopes for a final, fleeting shot. In background conversations, top GOP consultants say the rise of Cain and Perry’s bank account may be too much for him to overcome in a compressed time period. “He’s calm, we’re calm,” Hammond says, when pressed on the odds. “Things in all the states remain fluid, even in New Hampshire, where Mitt Romney’s support is as thick as a November ice on Lake Winnipesaukee.”
Wait and see — that is the Gingrich mantra. In coming days, his team does not expect him to go negative against Cain, the latest Republican hotshot, but to poke holes, in a friendly manner, in aspects of the 9-9-9 tax plan. When Perry unveils his flat-tax proposal this week, look for Gingrich to trumpet his own flat-tax plan, which he released earlier this year. He’ll also likely challenge Perry to explain specifics, such as his chosen rate.
Meanwhile, finally, the campaign will spend some coin, opening offices in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina. An outpost in Miami will expand, as will the operation in Atlanta, where the campaign’s main call center is housed.
And to the joy of political junkies, Gingrich will join Cain for a one-on-one discussion at a tea-party forum in Texas next month, an event the campaign hopes will spark tea-party voters to reconsider, on a policy basis, their Cain support. The battle for the “non-Romney” slot in the primary, at least in Newt World, has only begun.
Newt is a good debater. However, one thing the article overlooks, among many, is that the $500,000 in the bank is matched by $1,500,000 in debt as of the end of the quarter. He is the only GOP candidate to be living on such deficit spending.
Not sure what article YOU read, but that was a very prominent focus of the article.
Cain/Gingrich is who I am hoping for now too.
Gingrich would bring the Washington experience that Cain could use. And the best experience would be coming from a guy who actually forced Bill Clinton to balance the budget.
Newt is an avid global warmist and will tax us to fund AlGore’s Carbon Credit scam.
All we need for a reminder is the video clip of Newt and Nance Pelosi on a loveseat telling us how global warming is OUR fault and that it’s OUR responsibility to PAY to stop global warming.
Sorry, Newt.
NO SALE!!
Extremely well done.
There’s deficit spending and there’s leveraging or investing to get future returns. He’s got to spend some to make some, but since he doesn’t have much to start with, he’s got to gamble that what he’s doing will make more. This is historically what makes growth possible.
Note that his expenses are practically down to zero and his is carefully managing these funds.
And I think it’s working. I have been so impressed that I just sent him a contribution, and I’m sure I’m not the only one.
But, I can't seem to make the bridge to trusting him based on his past political opportunism and his global warming advocacy.
That said; he recently pledged to oppose the expansion of Agenda 21 in America. So, I don't know what to think ...that beings me back to the trust issue.
I would like Cain/Perry and Newt as Sec of State.
He has already said that was a mistake. At least he can admit it.
After the Resurrection, I’m concerned that on the 3rd day he will rise again as a RINO.
Romney or Perry would be the GOP's Mike Dukakis. And that is EXACTLY what the MSM and are hoping for.
I wish that during the next debate, the organizers would give Newt more questions. Right now it's nothing but Perry, ROmney and Caine. They are all being 'chosen', just as they did McLame in 2008.
New is a conservative...sometimes.
Newt is not presidential material. Smart? Yes. Presidential? No. He needs to serve in a cabinet position.
The inconsequential Jon Huntsman is too, but your point is well taken. Newt needs an infusion of cash to continue.
“All we need for a reminder is the video clip of Newt and Nance Pelosi on a loveseat telling us how global warming is OUR fault and that it’s OUR responsibility to PAY to stop global warming.”
I hated that also. But I can forgive him in light of a potential Romney sweep.
Any Republican but Romney.
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