Newt Gingrich likes to boast that he runs an unconventional campaign that relies more on grassroots outreach than expensive infrastructure, but as he?s soared in the polls, he?s turned his sights to a traditional cash source: K Street.
Gingrich?s Washington offensive launches in earnest Wednesday, with a $1,000-a-head fundraiser at the power restaurant Occidental Grill and Seafood.
Continue ReadingIt?s a turnaround from this summer, when Washington?s political class mostly turned its back on the former House speaker after his staff quit en masse and his fundraising slowed to a trickle.
Now a crew of Gingrich loyalists, employees and business partners from his three-decade political career are trying to capitalize on his recent momentum by building a network of donors that can undercut GOP rivals Rick Perry and Mitt Romney?s base inside the Beltway and turn Gingrich?s relatively meager war chest into one that can support a front runner.
Gingrich has certain advantages over his rivals when it comes to courting Washington. Even as he?s tried to cast himself as a reformer, his years as a political insider ? capped by a decade in the advocacy industry ? have left him with countless influential connections on K Street, the Hill and the conservative movement.
And those ties are reflected in the fundraiser host committee, which includes former Reps. Robert Livingston (R-La.) and Robert Walker (R-Pa.), both of whom built lucrative lobbying practices after leaving Congress.
Also involved are several folks who worked for or with Gingrich in Congress and afterwards as he built his own successful political business empire.
Dan Crowley was the top lawyer for Gingrich as speaker, while Missy Jenkins was a health policy advisor and Rachel Robinson worked in his speaker?s office. David Merritt and Jim Frogue are former senior level employees of Gingrich?s for-profit healthcare think tank, the Center for Health Transformation, and Sreedhar Potarazu is president of VitalSpring Technologies, a member of the Center that was featured in a New York Times story about how Gingrich used the group to further the interests of its members.
The roster of supporters assembled for the fundraiser represents ?the tip of the iceberg? of Gingrich?s potential Washington presence, said Crowley, now a lobbyist at the mega-firm K&L Gates. Asserting that hundreds of people who worked for Gingrich or members of the GOP conference during his speakership could become the basis of a formidable Washington operation, Crowley said ?Newt World was extensive and most of those people are still around and some are just starting to appreciate that his campaign is viable.? He added ?They all have their own political pedigree and are activists in their own right, and what is emerging as a result is a truly organic political organization.?
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