Newt Gingrich’s campaign appears to still be reeling from the mass resignation of many top staffers a week and a half ago. As the Des Moines Register reports, Gingrich has yet to put in place new staff in the key caucus state of Iowa.
Gingrich’s entire paid Iowa staff were among the mass resignations. Gingrich spokesman R.C. Hammond told the Register that the campaign is searching for a new staff, but declined to discuss any specifics.
Meanwhile, the paper had trouble finding any prominent evidence of the staff search — and instead found evidence that key Iowa GOP activists are not taking the campaign seriously.
The Register reports:
“They’ve given the impression that they’re not a viable campaign here in Iowa,” said David Roederer, who was chairman of eventual nominee John McCain’s campaign four years ago during a time when the Arizona senator’s presidential bid was presumed dead because of fundraising problems. “I’m not saying it’s not, but that’s the image, the impression that they’re giving.”
Gingrich’s roughly 2-minute pre-recorded appearance via video at a debt reduction summit Saturday had an infomercial-like feel. Some members of the audience panned it.
Roederer, former Polk County Republican Chairman Ted Sporer and Iowa Republican Party Chairman Matt Strawn said they were not aware of efforts to rebuild an Iowa staff.
Eric Kleefeld
Eric Kleefeld joined TPM as an intern for the final months of the 2006 midterm elections, and then kept showing up for work. His other interests include guitars, old comic books and the politics of various English-speaking countries.
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