Gingrich Admits Money Problems Are Plaguing His Campaign

During a Maryland campaign stop, Gingrich doesn’t rule out staff pay cuts.

Updated: March 27, 2012 | 2:40 p.m.
March 27, 2012 | 11:57 a.m.

ANNAPOLIS, Md. – Newt Gingrich insisted Tuesday that he has enough campaign cash to see him through to the Republican convention in Tampa in August, even as he hinted that some staff pay cuts may be imminent.

“Look, clearly we’re gonna have to go on a fairly tight budget to get from here to Tampa, but I think we can do it and I think we will do it and it’s going to take a lot of work on our part but we have a lot of supporters who want us to do that,” Gingrich told a dozen reporters who gathered to hear him speak after he toured the Maryland State Capitol.

Asked whether he would be asking his staff to take pay cuts, Gingrich said “we’re working through what is it going to take” to get to the convention and said that Joe DiSantis and R.C. Hammond, two members of his communications team, “will have something to say about that in the next day or two.”

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The former House Speaker’s money problems have become public at this point. At an event Monday night in Hockessin, Del., he began charging supporters $50 to have a photograph taken with him -- a campaign rite that used to be free.

Gingrich raised only $2.6 million in February, $200,000 less than he spent. And although he has $1.5 million in the bank to continue his efforts, he carries an equivalent amount in campaign debt.

His campaign announced that he had canceled a trip to North Carolina on Wednesday but said it was because Gingrich would campaign that day for Washington, D.C.’s April 3 primary, which comes sooner than the May 8 contest in the Tar Heel state.

Gingrich is still making light of remarks by fellow Republicans that the race has effectively been decided in Mitt Romney’s favor. One such party leader, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham quipped on CNN on Sunday that, “the fat lady hasn't sung yet. But she's warming up."

Gingrich chuckled when a reporter repeated the remark to him. “I don't know if Mitt Romney wants to be considered the fat lady,” he said.

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