Newt announces his national co-chairs and Georgia chair

ABC:

Former Georgia Govs. Sonny Perdue and Zell Miller, who also served as a U.S. Senator, will serve as national chairmen of Gingrich’s campaign. Miller, a Democrat, famously denounced John Kerry at the 2004 Republican National Convention and supported George W. Bush’s re-election campaign.

Current Gov. Nathan Deal will chair Gingrich's campaign in Georgia.

“I’m proud to have three very important Georgians helping lead our campaign,” Gingrich said in a statement. “Sonny, Zell and Nathan are good friends and have always provided good counsel. They will be there very important voices as we talk to the American people about the right policies we need to win the future."

"America, at this critical juncture, needs a leader who has the discernment and understanding of where America needs to go, and the courage and leadership to implement that vision,” Perdue said in a statement. “Newt Gingrich has what it takes to do both."

“Newt is a leader,” Miller said in a statement. “Newt’s election as president is critical to the future of our country. We need a leader who has proven they can make big things happen. You don’t do big things by being a wall flower.”

At a Christian Science Monitor breakfast with reporters in Washington, D.C., on Monday, Gingrich said he will play in all the early states and has asked his supporters in Georgia to split their time campaigning between the neighboring states of Florida and South Carolina. Gingrich’s campaign is headquartered in Atlanta, Ga.

Newt is hosting first fundraiser Wednesday with some familiar names

This upcoming Wednesday, in Atlanta, Newt will be joined by current Georgia Governor Nathan Deal; his predecessor, Sonny Perdue; and former U.S. Senator Zell Miller. It will be the first major fundraiser of a possible Gingrich campaign.

Deal was one of the first public officials to endorse Newt back in January.

Perdue did the same in March.

Miller is expected to be a national co-chairman of the campaign.

Roundup of Newt News: Repealing Obamacare this year, New CNN Poll, New Hampshire visits, endorsement from Sonny Perdue

-- In this week's newsletter, Newt laid out his strategy to repeal Obamacare this year:

Republicans should attach the full repeal of ObamaCare to the debt ceiling increase bill and pass it immediately.. While passing it, they should make clear that they would be willing to pass a clean debt ceiling increase if the White House and Senate Democrats agree to defund the implementation of ObamaCare through 2012 as part of a package of real spending reductions.

The debt ceiling does not become a crisis until June or July.

If the House passes the bill with an attachment to repeal ObamaCare as early as possible, there will be several months to marshal grassroots pressure on the 18 Democratic Senators running for reelection in 2012.

If President Obama is still determined to be unserious about bringing spending under control, he will be forced to decide whether he is willing to risk a financial crisis by defending a program that a majority of the American people wants to repeal.

The American people should not be forced to accept an increase in the debt ceiling without significant reductions in the out-of-control spending in Washington.

-- The latest GOP primary poll from CNN shows Newt in third place.
With Donald Trump included:

Mike Huckabee 19%
Mitt Romney 18%
Newt Gingrich 14%
Sarah Palin 12%
Trump 10%
Ron Paul 8%

Without Trump:

Huckabee 21%
Romney 19%
Gingrich 15%
Palin 13%
Paul 11%

Since the last such poll CNN did, Huckabee has the same support, Romney has increased one point, Newt has increased five, and Palin has fallen six.

-- Joining current Georgia governor Nathan Deal -- as well as two members of Georgia's Congressional delegation -- former governor Sonny Perdue endorsed Newt for President.

-- Two more upcoming visits to the Granite State:

Clearly pleased with the reception he received last week in New Hampshire, Newt Gingrich has scheduled two more stops in the first-in-the-nation primary state in the coming weeks.

The Union Leader's Granite Status has exclusively learned that Gingrich, the former House Speaker, will return on March 30 for a series of media interviews and private meetings with key Republicans on the Seacoast. That night, he will travel to Massachusetts for a speaking engagement at Salem State College.
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Gingrich will be back again on April 4, with the featured appearance at 10 a.m. at Saint Anselm College's New Hampshire Institute of Politics. There, he will speak at a meeting directed at students but open to the public.

Newt with Georgia Governor Perdue

Numerous states -- fourteen at last count -- have filed a lawsuit against the federal government since the passage of Obamacare, with more contemplating one. Georgia is an interesting case, because it's Attorney General, a Democrat who is running for governor, has refused to file any such suit. However, the current governor, Republican Sonny Perdue, is in favor of one.

The day after Thurbert Baker announced his decision -- saying he looked at the Constitution and "came away with the feeling that there really is no legal basis" for suing -- Perdue said he would name a "special Attorney General" to challenge the federal health care legislation. "The governor said the state will probably go it alone on the suit to avoid any costs," wrote the Atlanta Journal Constitution. "If Georgia joined with the other 14 state challenging the health legislation, it would incur some legal costs, Perdue said."

On the Thursday after the vote to pass a bill that is clearly unconstitutional -- if for no other reason than the federal government will require each citizen to buy a product or be put in jail -- Perdue and Newt Gingrich held a joint press conference discussing ways to roll back and replace the bill.

Newt condemned the threats against elected officials that have been on the rise -- though the media only seem to cover voice mails to Democrats and not when the second-ranking House Republican gets his office shot up -- but added: "But look, I think there’s something very disingenuous about the Democratic leaders who attacked the tea party movement, who refused to hold town hall meetings, who refused to go back home, who kept the Congress locked up in Washington, and are now shocked that people are angry."

"I think the Democratic leadership has to take some moral responsibility for having behaved with such arrogance, in such a hostile way, that the American people are deeply upset," Gingrich added. "So let’s be honest with this. This is a game that they’re playing." He went on to say the Democrats ran "a machine that used corrupt tactics that bought votes that bullied people, and as a result has enraged much of the American people."