Two top fundraisers for Newt Gingrich quit Tuesday, becoming the latest casualties in a series of staff departures that have badly hamstrung the former House speaker’s 2012 presidential bid.
Fundraising director Jody Thomas and fundraising consultant Mary Heitman have abandoned the Republican’s campaign, Gingrich spokesman R.C. Hammond confirmed Tuesday.
Neither Thomas nor Heitman returned an e-mail seeking comment on their departure.
Meanwhile, Gingrich campaign spokesman Joe DeSantis said late Tuesday that the candidate would report a second line of credit for as much as $1 million at jeweler Tiffany’s. The account has been closed and is in addition to a $250,000 to $500,000 Tiffany debt carried by Gingrich and his wife, Callista, in 2005 and 2006.
The resignations come less than two weeks after more than a dozen staffers left Gingrich’s campaign en masse — including the former speaker’s campaign manager, chief strategist and key operatives in Iowa and South Carolina. The departures caused some to question whether Gingrich would stay in the race, but he has vowed to remain a candidate and appeared last week in the first major debate of the GOP primary season.
“The campaign will continue to reorganize,” Hammond said after the news. “We are going to duct-tape together one coalition of Americans after another that believe in [Gingrich’s] large, bold vision of change.”
Hammond added that the former Georgia lawmaker’s campaign still has “over a dozen staffers” and that the finance director job would be filled internally by a longtime Gingrich loyalist.
The latest departures come just a week before the candidates in the 2012 presidential contest must file their fundraising reports for the second quarter. The disclosures are considered an early test of strength for the Republican field.
The exits also come on the heels of reports that Gingrich is struggling to raise money. His former advisers contend that he didn’t have the $25,000 to pay the filing fee to enter the Ames Straw Poll or the $30,000 needed to buy the list of previous Iowa caucus attendees and that he instead has spent heavily on things such as chartered jets.
Two sources familiar with the Gingrich operation said the campaign was operating with $800,000 to $1 million in debt. Without a significant war chest, Gingrich will probably be left with a campaign that centers on appearances at candidate forums and debates and with him making speeches on a variety of policy topics.
“Newt’s strength is his ability to put forward bold and new ideas,” Hammond said.
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