Gingrich Campaign $4.5 Million In Debt

In addition to 140 delegates, Newt Gingrich’s campaign has garnered him four-and-a-half million dollars in debt:

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Newt Gingrich acknowledged on Sunday that his campaign was in fairly massive debt. But the former House Speaker continued to stress that he would remain in the race for purposes of driving the party, and its platform, in certain ideological directions.

Appearing on Fox News Sunday, Gingrich was asked about a report that his campaign had spent roughly $4.5 million more than it had raised.

“I think slightly less than that,” he replied, declining to offer a more specific number. “We owe much more than we wanted to. Florida got to be a real brawl. And I think, unfortunately, our guys tried to match Romney and it turned out we didn’t have anything like his capacity to raise money.”

Gingrich admitted that he had to dip into his personal finances to help fund his campaign though he insisted that he had not spent much of his own money. He also acknowledged that he was campaigning heavily in Delaware because it was relatively inexpensive to do so.

“We are operating on a shoestring,” he said.

Calling it a shoe string would be generous, I think.

FILED UNDER: 2012 Election, US Politics, , , ,
Doug Mataconis
About Doug Mataconis
Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.

Comments

  1. Tsar Nicholas II says:

    Again, at the risk of beating a dead elephant, watching Gingrich staggering around the remainder of this primary season at a certain level is downright pitiful. It’s like watching a one-time boxing titleholder, now far past his prime and punch drunk, stepping into the ring to absorb yet another unnecessary pummeling. Not too long ago this dude was the 3rd in line to the presidency. Now he’s a parody of a SNL skit. Epic fall. Epic fail.

  2. Hey Norm says:

    Just another Republican fiscal-fraud. All Republicans do is create debt. No suprises here.

  3. anjin-san says:

    It will be interesting to see if he ends up stiffing the vendors who made his campaign possible. I note he is not practicing fiscal responsibility and saying “We’re broke. I am shutting down my campaign and will now focus on making sure everyone gets paid.”

  4. DRS says:

    The only reason he’s staying in the “race” is to raise money. The minute he’s out, no one will ever consider cutting him a cheque. (That they’d consider cutting a cheque for him now is debatable, but it’s the difference between a very long shot and a sure thing.)

    Speaking of not winning, anyone heard anything of Ron Paul lately?

  5. al-Ameda says:

    Maybe Tiffany’s can front Newt the money?