Short on cash, Newt Gingrich turns to Twitter to win delegates

The day after Newt Gingrich started charging $50 per photo to raise campaign funds, the Republican presidential candidate drastically reorganized his money- and delegate-deprived campaign. Gingrich is now scaling back the traditional campaign operation to focus on low-cost social media and an effort to cajole GOP delegates to back him over front-runner Mitt Romney.

One-third of Gingrich's campaign staff has been laid off and his campaign manager has been asked to resign, Gingrich spokesman R.C. Hammond said Tuesday night.

The new strategy: win a brokered convention. Or as one campaign official said: A "big choice convention."

"Newt 2012 is transitioning into an organization appropriate for winning a big choice convention," Gingrich communication director Joe DeSantis said in an email to Politico. "This big choice convention phase will be focused on two goals.  1. Affecting the national dialogue to show that Gingrich is the most capable of defeating Obama, by leading on issues that put the president on defense — like Newt's $2.50 Gas Plan; and 2. A parallel communications strategy directly to the delegates."

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The new strategy hinges on preventing Romney from winning the 1,144 delegates he needs for the nomination, Hammond said. Gingrich plans to spend much less time in primary states and will instead personally call delegates to try to persuade them to back him at the Republican National Convention in August.

"We are not going to cede to Mitt Romney's strategy to take the party down," Hammond said. Ultimately, Gingrich would bring the fight to the convention floor, Hammond said.

Gingrich still promises to support Romney if Romney collects the necessary delegates before the party convenes in Tampa, Fla., Hammond said. In the meantime, Gingrich planned to shift the campaign's focus to digital outreach — in particular YouTube, Twitter and other social media.

Gingrich's campaign manager, Michael Krull, was asked to resign. Hammond and campaign communications director Joe DeSantis will remain with the campaign. Both have been working for Gingrich for more than a year, even as a group of consultants quit the campaign last summer.

The rollback in the campaign comes after Gingrich listed more than $1.5 million in outstanding debt by the end of February, according to Federal Election Commission filings, including legal fees and advertising production costs. At the same time, he had about $1.5 million cash on hand, the least of the four GOP candidates.

Campaigning Tuesday in Maryland, Gingrich conceded that he is strapped for campaign funds. "The money is very tight, obviously," he said. "That's why we're trying to raise more money."

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