Posted on 04/10/2012 5:42:31 PM PDT by Red Steel
RALEIGH, N.C. — Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s campaign Monday began morphing into less of a pursuit of the presidency and more into an effort to shape the Republican platform and to influence the discussion in the fall elections.
Campaigning in Raleigh, Gingrich said he planned to battle front-runner Mitt Romney in North Carolina’s May 8 primary and all the way to the GOP convention in Tampa, Fla., but conceded the prospects of overtaking the former Massachusetts governor were not bright.
But he said Republicans still face serious choices at the convention and into the fall — whether the GOP will be a "conservative, dynamic movement" or whether it will move more to the center. Gingrich said he hoped his candidacy would help influence that debate.
"There is no reason to concede anything," Gingrich said at a news conference. "Every vote we can get in North Carolina is a vote for a more conservative platform — every vote we can get in Delaware, or we can get in Arkansas or we can get in Texas, that is a very useful thing to be doing. If there is a major mistake or a major flaw, the race is wide open again."
Meeting earlier with a group put together by black conservatives, Gingrich elaborated on his theme, saying he wanted Republicans up and down the ticket this fall to run on a conservative platform, which he said was not only the principled choice but also the best way to win.
"That’s why I am continuing to campaign," Gingrich said, "trying to send a signal."
Gingrich’s campaign has taken on a different tone in North Carolina. He hardly mentioned, let alone criticized, his primary rivals: Romney, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas.
Romney has two fundraisers planned April 18, but Santorum has no appearances planned in the state with the primary just a month away. Santorum is focusing on the GOP primary in his home state of Pennsylvania on April 24.
That means that Gingrich has North Carolina nearly to himself, and he spent Monday campaigning in Raleigh, meeting with a community group, holding a news conference, having lunch at Caffe Luna and addressing students at Broughton High School. On Tuesday, he will campaign in New Bern and he will return to the state Saturday to attend a "tea party" rally in Greensboro.
While Gingrich is actively campaigning here, he is doing so without any advertising budget that would allow him to reach a broad number of voters.
Gingrich called the state’s GOP primary "very competitive." A survey of Tar Heel voters conducted late last month by Public Policy Polling found Romney and Santorum tied at 30 percent, Gingrich at 19 percent and Paul at 13 percent.
The difficulty Gingrich faces was evident at a meeting with community leaders at the Shanahan Law Group, when one person asked Gingrich whether he thought conservatives might mount a primary challenge to a President Romney in 2016.
Earlier in the campaign, Gingrich might have used such a question to challenge Romney’s conservative bona fides. Instead, Gingrich talked about the need to make the GOP adopt a conservative platform in Tampa.
Gingrich said he hoped the new phase of his campaign would enable him to push some of his ideas — something he said he often found difficult to do during the hectic give and take earlier in the campaign.
He said the country needed bold ideas because economic conditions were much worse than people realize — that unemployment was far worse than the numbers indicate, college kids can’t find jobs, that the national debt was growing, and that many of the social programs such as Medicare and Social Security faced financial challenges.
“”There is no reason to concede anything,” Gingrich said at a news conference. “Every vote we can get in North Carolina is a vote for a more conservative platform — every vote we can get in Delaware, or we can get in Arkansas or we can get in Texas, that is a very useful thing to be doing. If there is a major mistake or a major flaw, the race is wide open again.”
AMEN. Go NEWT. CONSERVATIVES - PRAY without ceasing that the cultist Romney is stopped by divine intervention before 1144.
Well said!
Why would a state like NC produce an outlier result, particularly given NC went for Obama in 2008 -- if anything that suggests Mittens should do well there.
The best possible split I've seen for either candidate was a Feb. PPP poll that gave Santorum a proportional 2:1 over Romney of 'Gingrich dropout' voters.
"The best thing Romney might have going for him right now is Gingrich's continued presence in the race. If Gingrich dropped out 58% of his supporters say they would move to Santorum, while 22% would go to Romney and 17% to Paul."
Further, let's say Santorum's late-winter surge did come exclusively from Gingrich supporters -- why would those voters just 'go back'? I've seen enough rancor on Free Republic to be assured that will never happen.
Just found out North Carolina has a traditional marriage amendment on the ballot the same day as the primary on May 8th.
Anyone still think Mittsky’s going to win that one?
Sorry cowboy since you believe Newt should not have entered the Utah primary he should not have dropped off a bouncing check . Your hero should have dropped out long ago.....What happens if there’s no debate in North Carolina ... which there won’t be where is Newt going ?
Release them" at the convention is not the same as directing them. If Mittens has the magic number for the first ballot then either the delegates vote as aligned, or the RNC orchestrates a voice vote.
And Santorum's people are talking to Mitten's people if they are serious about wanting to retire Rick's campaign debt.
Without their money guys? Friess (Santorum) and Adelson (Gingrich) are already talking about supporting Romney -- and Adelson met with Mittens in February.
Adelson is not talking about supporting Romney in the primary. I imagine he would support any Republican in the general election. He said in a recent interview he’s met with Romney countless times. He said he’s “like Obama.” He answered his questions as if he’s “voting present” and never gave Adelson a straight answer.
A better question would be to ask Paul Stam -- NC House Majority Leader and the driving force behind Amendment One -- if he has endorsed Gingrich...
Gov Perdue is really disliked in NC, the one who suggested skipping elections this year. Newt is speaking at a tea party rally Saturday in Greensboro.
Wish we still had polls on FR, I’d like to see a poll of:
Who Will Get Santorum’s Endorsement?
Romney
Gingrich
Personally I wouldn’t bet the farm either way.
Yeah, a great big box of pinched chocolates. :(
Based on demographics alone, I would think that North Carolina would be one of the better chances for a Gingrich pickup. Obviously he needs at least five states with a plurality of votes to get his name into nomination.
It would be very strange for the pro-life, pro-marriage Santorum to get behind pro-abort, pro-gay liberal Romney, while there remains a conservative alternative.
But if Santorum were to hitch his wagon that way...or strap himself on the roof...I would not be completely astonished.
Santorum might “take one for the team.”
I can think of an equally unsurprising alternative. Santorum lines up with Romney, being offered the veep spot in exchange for dropping out. In eight years he is the shoo-in for the presidential nomination. Plus Romney offers to pay his campaign debt.
If there is a major mistake or a major flaw, the race is wide open again.”
WORD.
The media would have a collective seizure if Gingrich won NC.
Somebody can correct me if I’m wrong, but I think Santorum suspended his campaign before incurring major debt.
Debt is a problem for the Bachmann and Gingrich campaigns, and at least so far, they haven’t been willing to accept a Romney buyout.
Capitalism is great for business, but buying votes isn’t good for government.
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