Summary of some other interesting points and factoids in the WSJ article:
- 2006 - founded the group American Solutions for Winning the Future, using a $1 million donation from Las Vegas Sands casino mogul Sheldon Adelson (a policy group to train and sponsor state and local candidates, and to research and promote conservative causes, such as privatization of Social Security).
- Early 2007 - along with his wife Callista, started Gingrich Productions, to publish books and movies.
- March 2009 - formed a non-profit Renewing American Leadership, "to bring moral leadership back to our nation." (only weeks before official conversion to Catholicism, his wife's faith)
- Late 2009 - formed the Americano, a Spanish language conservative news / media / blogging site, targeting communications and support for conservative Hispanics.
In May 2008, at the conference in Las Vegas where he was a featured speaker, Newt suggested to the audience that someone should print stickers "Drill more, pay less." Later, American Solutions group expanded on the idea by starting an online petition "Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less" which gathered more than a million signatures a month, and which later that year, during Republican convention, became a "Drill, Baby, Drill".
The petition gave the American Solutions wide recognition and it now claims a donor list of more than 300,000 (including hundreds of professionals and small-medium business donors) in addition to the 80,000 names on Renewing American Leadership list. Together, with American Solution's 1.3 million email contacts, that comprises a total of 1.7 million potential voters.