It appears the Newt Gingrich’s campaign is currently operating in a less than healthy state as news is breaking that many of his top advisors are jumping ship from the former House Speaker.
Report from the AP:
WASHINGTON – The entire top echelon of Newt Gingrich’s presidential campaign resigned on Thursday, a stunning mass exodus that left his bid for the Republican nomination in tatters. Gingrich publicly shrugged off the defections, vowing defiantly to remain a candidate.
“I am committed to running the substantive, solutions-oriented campaign I set out to run earlier this spring,” the former House speaker said in a posting to his Facebook page. “The campaign begins anew Sunday in Los Angeles.”
Rick Tyler, Gingrich’s spokesman, said that he, campaign manager Rob Johnson and senior strategists had all quit, along with aides in the early primary and caucus states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.
Other officials said Gingrich was informed that his entire high command was quitting in a meeting at his headquarters in Washington. They cited differences over the direction of the campaign.
“We had a different vision for victory,” Tyler told The Associated Press. “And since we couldn’t resolve that difference, I didn’t feel I could be useful in serving him.”
He said Gingrich was not allowing enough time to campaign in key states.
Scott Rials, a longtime aide who joined the departure, said, “I think the world of him, but at the end of the day we just could not see a clear path to win, and there was a question of commitment.”
This is simply stunning to read in the weeks following Gingrich’s campaign announcement. His original announcement of an exploratory committee also got off to a rough start though he seemed to recover. The nail in the coffin may have been his statements against Congressman Paul Ryan’s budget plan stating that it amounts to little more than “right-wing social engineering.” Since that time, Gingrich has been on a downward trajectory.
Even before the sudden departures of his top aides, Gingrich’s campaign was off to a notably rocky start. Within days of formally announcing he would run, he was assailed by conservatives for criticizing a plan to remake Medicare that Republicans pushed through the House.
He telephoned the author of the plan, Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, to apologize but did not back off his objections.
Within days, he had dropped from sight, embarking on a cruise to the Greek Isles with his wife, Callista, while rivals for the Republican nomination kept up their campaign appearances.
He returned to the United States earlier in the week to confront a rebellion that had been brewing for some time among the senior echelon of his campaign.
While Gingrich told his now-departed aides he would remain in the race, he faces formidable obstacles in assembling a new team in time to compete in a campaign that’s well under way.
Gingrich says the campaign “starts anew” on Sunday which will mark the 2nd or 3rd time it has “started anew” since it actually started. The desertion from Gingrich could open the door to Texas Governor Rick Perry since Gingrich had several of Perry’s top advisors on staff.
It will be interesting to watch this play out on the stage in New Hampshire Monday night.
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