Creditors say Gingrich has begun paying back nearly $1.2 million in bills he owed at the end of September, and his spokesman says most will be taken care of by the end of the year. Other debts — including $42,000 owed to Gingrich himself for the campaign’s use of a mailing list — had already been paid ahead of other vendors, according to aides and disclosure records…

Although campaigns often operate in the red, Gingrich’s debts are unusually high — he spent nearly $3 for every $2 he raised. Mitt Romney, by contrast, reported no debt last quarter.

Many of the bills date back to the start of Gingrich’s campaign in the spring, a time marked by extravagant spending on $30,000 jet flights and upscale hotels. The high campaign expenditures, along with Gingrich’s personal spending on Tiffany & Co. jewelry and a Greek Isles cruise, contributed to a mass resignation of staffers in June that nearly torpedoed his presidential aspirations…

“I think we’ll have enough money,” Gingrich told reporters in Johnston, Iowa, last week. “We’ll never have as much money as Mitt Romney, but I think we’ll have enough money. We’ll have a sufficiency to be very, very competitive.”