Newt makes big fundraising news

Clearly, fundraising is one of the key hurdles for any presidential campaign to manage. It takes a lot of money to run for president these days, and there’s no denying it. That’s why Mitt made such a splash with his huge totals earlier this month. Well, another presidential hopeful is in the news for fundraising this week, and it’s Newt Gingrich. Sadly for the former Speaker of the House, I don’t think it was precisely the headline he was looking for.

APNewsBreak: Gingrich campaign finance team quits

ATLANTA — The top fundraisers for Newt Gingrich’s presidential campaign have abandoned his struggling bid amid anemic fundraising and heavy spending.

Campaign spokesman R.C. Hammond is confirming to The Associated Press that fundraising director Jody Thomas and fundraising consultant Mary Heitman have left the team.

The former House speaker’s campaign has been on life support since earlier this month when 16 top aides and advisers resigned en masse over disagreements with the Republican candidate.

People familiar with Gingrich’s campaign spending say his fundraising has been weak since he launched his bid and that he has racked up large travel bills. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk openly about campaign inner workings.

I’m guessing Newt will bravely push on, and possibly even do a third re-launch and re-branding of his campaign this coming weekend. The only question left is, who is still on the team besides his wife and his travel agent?

This is quickly going down in history as one of the strangest presidential bids – at least among high profile names who would be taken seriously – of all time. I’ll admit, the strategy of going for the Greek Islands vote early was the type of genius you don’t normally see in run of the mill politicians, but shedding your fundraisers is taking it to an entirely new, Jedi mind trick level of stratergy.

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