Gingrich plans to stay in race, says Republican contest only in ‘first few minutes’
CONCORD, N.H. – Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich said Sunday that he intends to remain in the Republican presidential race for months to come.
He laid out a strategy that relies on being in the top tier in upcoming primaries and declared that front-runner Mitt Romney is being weakened by attacks on his “moderate’’ gubernatorial record and his background in corporate buyouts.
Fresh from a debate televised on NBC’s “Meet The Press,’’ in which he mocked Romney for “pious baloney,’’ a beaming Gingrich walked into his hotel here, settled onto a couch, predicted that the former Massachusetts governor was likely to win the New Hampshire primary – and insisted it wouldn’t matter.
“Think of this like the Super Bowl,’’ Gingrich said in an interview. “The first few minutes have gone by and we learned how the other team plays. Now we are in the next possession. You have to assume Romney will win here and the question is how big the margin is. And how well will I do in getting the message out?’’
Starting this week, Gingrich will have the kind of help getting out his message that he has lacked until now. A “super PAC’’ called Winning Our Future that is being advised by his former long-time spokesman, Rick Tyler, plans to spend at least $1 million in South Carolina to promote a 27-minute documentary that blasts Romney’s record running Bain Capital.
While Romney portrays his time at Bain as providing experience turning around failing companies, the documentary paints a dark portrait of Romney as a corporate raider who bankrupted firms for personal profit.
The Gingrich backers are, in effect, following the playbook of Romney supporters. Romney benefitted from a super PAC that spent millions of dollars on ads that blasted Gingrich in Iowa, a key factor in how the former Speaker to dropped 20 points in the polls in 20 days.
Gingrich’s strategy relies on tearing away at the very fabric of Romney’s message. Gingrich charges that Romney is a “timid moderate’’ based on his record as governor of Massachusetts, not a true conservative. He says that Romney’s business background is a negative.
And Gingrich says that Romney’s perceived political strength – his front-runner status – is actually hollow because three-fourths of Republicans prefer other candidates, according to national polls and the Iowa vote. Polls suggest Romney will draw a greater percentage of the vote in New Hampshire.
The key question facing Gingrich is whether his presence helps divide votes among Romney’s competition. Gingrich acknowledged that challenge in the interview, saying that Romney can only continue to be successful if there is a continued split of the anti-Romney vote with US Representative Ron Paul of Texas, former US Senator of Ron Santorum of Pennsylvania, former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman of Utah, and Texas Governor Rick Perry.
Gingrich’s strategy relies on being perceived as the main Romney challenger after New Hampshire, setting up a head-to-head challenge in the following primary, in South Carolina on Jan. 21. Gingrich noted that party rules call for the first round of primaries to be proportional, meaning delegates are distributed according to the vote.
Until April 1, most states will award delegates proportionally. After that, many states hold winner-take-all primaries. The rules were established by the party in an effort to promote more competition and a longer primary campaign. Gingrich’s goal is to remain in the race during the proportional contests and then be in position to win winner-take-all contests.
“Here’s Romney’s problem,’’ Gingrich said. “Up through March we have proportional representation. In Iowa, the party chose three to one against him. I don’t think he is going to get to a majority here. This is his third best state after Utah and Massachusetts, assuming Massachusetts is good for him. He is going to come to South Carolina and his only hope is if Gingrich and Santorum and Paul and Perry somehow split the vote so he gets a plurality of 27 percent. That is not getting him to the nomination.’’
“If he can’t get above 26 or 27 percent, what is there to intimidate you?’’ Gingrich said. “It will eventually come down to a clear choice between a liberal or a moderate, and a conservative.’’ Gingrich’s rivals, of course, have a similar idea about becoming the main alternative to Romney, which is why the order of the top tier in New Hampshire and South Carolina is so important.
“Our objective is to come out of South Carolina with a real choice: a Georgia conservative or a Massachusetts moderate,’’ said Tyler, the adviser to the pro-Gingrich committee. In addition to running the advertisements that criticize Romney’s business record, the super PAC also plans to run commercials promoting Gingrich’s record as a US representative from Georgia and as speaker.
Gingrich said he is heartened by his ability to survive a field that already has seen other rivals step aside, including former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, US Representative Michele Bachmann, and Hermain Cain.
After weeks in which Gingrich failed to respond effectively to the attacks against him, and with no super PAC behind him, his campaign is heartened by what it views as a determined assault by Gingrich in Sunday’s debate. Gingrich, meanwhile, said that those who count him out are forgetting something: “I’m very persistent.’’
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