Gingrich campaign's sloppy delegate list
Manchester, New Hampshire (CNN) - What a difference a few weeks make for Newt Gingrich's campaign.
Just two weeks ago the former House speaker's campaign turned in what looked like a scratch sheet of proposed delegates to the national convention, in contrast to the more complete and neatly organized lists submitted by other campaigns.
Gingrich's paperwork, filed with the secretary of state on Nov. 18, provided a snapshot of his strength on the ground in New Hampshire just as his campaign began to rise in popularity.
All candidates for the primary must submit a list of supporters who agree to serve as convention delegates. The campaigns for Mitt Romney, Rick Perry, Jon Huntsman and Ron Paul all turned in neatly type-written lists of 40 names - 20 who would serve as delegates and 20 alternates. Romney's list, in particular, included notable state politicos such as a former governor and former senator.
Gingrich's campaign filed only 27 names - 14 delegates and 13 alternates. The names are sloppily handwritten, with mistakes crossed out and an arrow pointing to one name that seemed to have been left off the list originally.
New Hampshire delegates are awarded proportionally, so it is unlikely any candidate would need a full 20 delegates. Neither Michele Bachmann nor Rick Santorum submitted a full list of 40 names.
The story was first reported by former GOP state party chair Fergus Cullen in the online publication NH Journal.
In the past several weeks, Gingrich has launched a comeback that showed him rising significantly in New Hampshire polls. The candidate hired a raft of staffers and opened a campaign headquarters in Manchester, signaling he would continue to open offices in the state.
He also landed a high-profile endorsement from the New Hampshire Union Leader, the only state-wide newspaper here and a sign of conservative support.
A New Hampshire spokesman for Gingrich released a response to the story pointing to the candidate's grass-roots support in the state.
"This is just one more example, in a growing list, as to how we are running a different type of campaign," said Mattheau LeDuc in the statement. "We are not looking to file a long list of people, as many other campaigns do, to appear as a 'who's who' of politics."
The Romney campaign seized the opportunity to take a dig at Gingrich, and touted the former Massachusetts governor's painstaking political operation in the state.
"Our campaign was able to fill out our entire delegate slate because we have a number of enthusiastic supporters who are eager to represent Gov. Romney at the RNC convention," said spokesman Ryan Williams. "Our team has built a grass roots organization that is second to none and will help Gov. Romney build the support that is needed to win the primary."
Also see:
Gingrich: Race will come down to 'Newt and Not-Newt'
Romney: Obama will 'cower' from debating his record
Romney and Gingrich take gloves off
Gingrich embraces 'lifelong politician' label
Newt does his own secretarial work.
It's no wonder he's flip-flopping as he changes his views to gain support from the conservative electorate!!!!
Dose he really have Dancing Queen as his ringtone on his cell phone ?
Newt never was good at paper work , except in regards to a prenuptial agreement, !
Things that make you say, "Hmm."
Somebody out there doesn't like Newt Gingrich. This is petty, but it is also significant. How a candidate conducts their campaign is a pretty good measure of how they would run their elected office. This smells like somebody within the organization could be a control freak: too much micro-managing, not enough time to be thorough, doing everything by themselves instead of delegating duty.
The 'beauty' with newt is that he is like the neighborhood scoundrel we know; the old fox; wiley coyote. We get the feeling that all his skeletons have been exposed and we can live with them. What he is now showing is a political maturity even sophistry that is lacking in the leadership we now have. This we need as we moved forward into this second decade of the twenty first century.
He's not a lobbyist selling political influence. He's a "consultant worth 1.6 million dollars for knowledge of history". He's not an adulterer. He's simply "got too much love to offer it to just one woman – especially one with cancer". He's not an unethical crook drummed-out of the House of Representatives. He's a conservative maverick who leverages his flexible ideology to produce monetrary rewards. Myself, I'm a barrister here in Nigeria for a wealthy billionaire who recently passed away and wants to leave you a large part of his fortune. Please send me all of your bank numbers and passwords so I can immediately transfer the money. What? You don't believe me? You believe Newt? Go figure...
AlaskaPalin wrote:
The 'beauty' with newt is that he is like the neighborhood scoundrel we know; the old fox; wiley coyote. We get the feeling that all his skeletons have been exposed and we can live with them.
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In other words, lack of morals and decency only matters when it is the other guys crossing the line. Mr. Gingrich epitomizes everything that is broken in Washington. He is a status quo politician and he would have a status quo adminsitration. If you want change and a new direction in DC, then Newt Gingrich is not the one.
Where did he get the money for all of that? From Fannie Mae? Freddie Mac? Tiffany's? Or did the Koch brothers drop Cain and start sending his allowance to Gingrich?
He doesn't have to play by the rules, folks! He already feels he has the nomination sewn up! You ain't seen nothin yet ... Newt is just warming up ...