Is Newt’s Campaign Bankrupt?

Posted on | March 19, 2012 | 17 Comments

An article at National Journal about Obama’s $45 million February fundraising haul mentions a fact I’ve repeatedly emphasized:

Obama’s numbers soundly trumped his GOP rivals in February fundraising. Mitt Romney brought in about $11.5 million, whereas Rick Santorum and Ron Paul brought in roughly $9 million and $3.3 million, respectively. Newt Gingrich has not released his February totals yet.

If it was good news, we would have heard about it by now. Just got off the phone with the Federal Election Commission press office, which confirmed that the Feburary FEC reports are due Tuesday.

As of Jan. 31, the Gingrich campaign’s net balance — cash-on-hand of $1,788,590, minus debts of $1,726,085 — was just $62,505. February was an uninterrupted series of defeats for Gingrich. After losing Nevada Feb. 4, he was third in Colorado and fourth in Minnesota (Feb. 7), fourth in Maine (Feb. 11), then third in Arizona and fourth in Michigan (Feb. 28).

It is therefore likely that Newt’s financial situation in February deteriorated significantly from the less-than-ideal situation in January, when Gingrich raised just $5.5 million while spending $16.4 million.

What will we learn when the FEC posts the February reports tomorrow? We don’t know, but if the Gingrich campaign didn’t put the brakes on its $16-million-a-month January “burn rate” soon enough, it’s likely the FEC report will show the campaign ended February with a negative balance — more debt than cash-on-hand.

The silence from Team Newt hints that the red ink might be very deep.

Category: Election 2012, Newt Gingrich

Comments

17 Responses to “Is Newt’s Campaign Bankrupt?”

Opinador Compulsivo
March 19th, 2012 @ 4:21 pm

Meanwhile …

“The words out of my mouth were, if you want a conservative as the nominee of this party, you must vote for Mitt Romney”
— Rick Santorum, 2008
richard mcenroe
March 19th, 2012 @ 4:24 pm

Compared to John McCain, that was a valid statement, since McCain was running around calling us racists for worrying about immigration and telling us Obama was a good man…

you know, like Romney is now.
richard mcenroe
March 19th, 2012 @ 4:26 pm

Newt’s so broke, he’s running a tab now for cubic zirconiums at CostCo,,,
Evi L. Bloggerlady
March 19th, 2012 @ 4:42 pm

This is Drudge’s headline right now?
Evi L. Bloggerlady
March 19th, 2012 @ 4:43 pm

Does Mitt list Matt as an “In-Kind” donor?
Adjoran
March 19th, 2012 @ 5:07 pm

Easy to go broke when you buy your own domain name from your wife’s company at a 5000% markup, and stay in the best hotels. What idiot gives credit to a political campaign? But there were hotels and limo services that allowed Al Sharpton’s “entourage” to run up 6-figure bills, so anything is possible.

At least we don’t have to worry about those Goldwater-lovin’, “small gummint” conservatives any more: http://youtu.be/y-WezrKqUBQ
BradleyHarman
March 19th, 2012 @ 7:30 pm

Newt may WANT to go all the way to Tampa, but his campaign bus might get repossessed before that.

Shame on conservatives for even toying with such a bipolar jackass. I get that you don’t like Romney, but Newt as an alternative is inexcusable for these serious times.
Ford Prefect
March 19th, 2012 @ 7:57 pm

Agree with the first paragraph.

However, Romney isn’t serious either or else he would actually be, like you know, trying to get his base behind him. Without it, he will go the way of Ford, GHWB, Dole, and McCain. That is the sad history of GOP squishes.
SOYLENT GREEN
March 19th, 2012 @ 10:26 pm

His Campaign Bankrupt? Maybe.
His soul?
Definitely.
Mike Rogers
March 20th, 2012 @ 12:13 am

Ghwb actually got elected once, then we found out he had no vision thing, and no integrity over taxes, either.
The others were total losers.
Testor
March 20th, 2012 @ 12:58 am

If Romney “can’t get the base behind him” what does that say about Santorum who’s losing by over a million votes and only has half the delegates?

Romney does well with conservatives, until he hits the South because of his Mormonism.

If Romney’s not a real conservative, why did Santorum say he was?

Was he a liar then or a liar now?
richard mcenroe
March 20th, 2012 @ 1:16 am

Do you even read these threads before you flap your gums? Look up.
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Asian_chic
March 20th, 2012 @ 9:54 am

You sound like the left. When people disagrees with O, it’s racism. When people vote for the other guys, it’s bigotry.
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