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Posted: 1:01 a.m. Wednesday, June 22, 2011
By Jamie Dupree
Today was supposed to be another day where Newt Gingrich could get his struggling campaign for President back on track, but instead of giving a speech in Atlanta that makes news on issues, the former House Speaker faces more questions about his future in the GOP race.
"Gingrich campaign fundraisers quit," was the headline on Tuesday, as two senior aides involved in fundraising joined 16 other key staffers in leaving the Gingrich campaign.
Reports indicated that Gingrich is already "at least" $1 million in debt, and that little money was arriving in new contributions.
In coming weeks, we will get an idea of how much Gingrich and other Republicans have raised for their campaigns; look for those reports at the end of June and into early July.
Gingrich made no official comment about the latest troubles in his campaign. He was active on Twitter yesterday, with such postings as "Do you have a favorite quote about American Exceptionalism?"
The former House Speaker is in Georgia today for a speech to the Atlanta Press Club, which was to focus on financial issues - but now, he seems more likely to be answering questions again about the state of his White House bid.
Gingrich's troubles surfaced as Jon Huntsman kicked off his campaign in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty and then went to New Hampshire for his first official campaign event.
One theme on his first day was that the future for this nation was not positive.
"We are about to pass down to the next generation a country that is less powerful, less compassionate, less competitive and less confident than the one we got," Huntsman said.
"This is totally unacceptable and totally un-American," a phrase Huntsman repeated in Exeter, New Hampshire as well.
In other campaign news, Mitt Romney announced the next six debates that he would participate in this year - they include one in Iowa just before the Iowa Straw Poll, which Romney has said he will not contest:
In other words, Romney's challengers now know where he will be in August, September and October. He is skipping one GOP debate in July.
One would expect Romney's challengers will have to follow suit and sign up for all six those events as well, as the GOP field tries to knock Romney down a few notches.
One of those challengers, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, is already on the air now with his first TV advertisement in Iowa.
Jamie Dupree is the Radio News Director of the Washington Bureau of the Cox Media Group and writes the Washington Insider blog.
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