Tom Beaumont interviews Joe Gaylord about possible Gingrich candidacy; NYT: no announcement speech, just Q&A session

On the Des Moines Register website, Beaumont asked Gaylord, who is Newt's senior political adviser -- and "a Des Moines native who has been Gingrich’s top strategist for 20 years" -- about the news of starting an exploratory committee.

Gaylord said the development will allow Gingrich, who has said he would announce his plans in the coming days, to raise money, conduct polling and hire staff to be dispatched to early nominating states, including Iowa.

Iowa’s precinct caucuses are expected to start the 2012 Republican presidential nominating sequence in less than a year.

The New York Times has another detail:

Mr. Gingrich is not preparing to deliver an announcement speech – that, aides said, will likely come later – but he will hold a question-and-answer session with reporters. He is not expected to file paperwork immediately, but rather announce plans to do so in the coming weeks.

Newt will be in Iowa a day before his possible announcement date

From Tom Beaumont, who I figure to be quoting a lot of over the next year:

Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich is scheduled to participate in a forum of Iowa social conservatives on March 7, the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition said today.

The addition of Gingrich to the list of speakers, which includes fellow 2012 Republican presidential prospects, comes as Gingrich has said he expects to announce his plans within the next two weeks and as early as next week.

Former CEO Herman Cain, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, all weighing 2012 GOP presidential bids, are expected at the Faith and Freedom event, to be held at Point of Grace Church in Waukee from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.

More details from Newt's trip to Iowa this week

It had already been reported that Newt had met with Iowa Republican leaders, but today we learn that he met with some in the grassroots.

From a story by Thomas Beaumont for the Des Moines Register:

Gingrich also met for an hour with 15 tea party and grass-roots conservative activists, a newly active segment of the Republican caucus electorate heading into the 2012 campaign.

Gingrich asked the group about the recently formed Iowa Grassroots Coalition, a loosely affiliated group of 46 tea party and conservative groups.

Gingrich, who last fall had urged Iowa conservatives to block the retention of three Iowa Supreme Court justices, asked what they expected to happen with the remaining four judges.

Gingrich nodded at their stories about how the groups are organizing, educating their base and getting involved in the legislative process....

Ryan Rhodes, founder and chairman of the Iowa Tea Party, told Gingrich he would have to answer for participating with then-U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in a 2008 advertisement raising awareness about global warming.

Gingrich responded that leaders cannot beat their adversaries without engaging them. "I'm going to try to convince you to debate them," he said. "I've had a fairly good track record of slugging it out."

I think those on the right who criticize Gingrich for that commercial needs to realize that he was not endorsing Pelosi's big government schemes. Just talking with someone on the opposing side does not mean Gingrich is a squish.

Of the announcements by Iowa Majority Leader Linda Upmeyer and Georgia Govenor Nathan Deal that they would support a Gingrich Presidential campaign, the former Speaker said, "I thought that was about as good a day as I'm going to get."

Busy day for Gingrich in Iowa

Gingrich gave a speech today "to about 600 at the Iowa Renewable Fuel Association’s Summit in Des Moines."

Before the speech, Newt "met with House members, Senators, Gov. Terry Branstad and Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds at the Iowa Capitol."

The headline from the speech was that he called for abolishing the Environmental Protection Agency, replacing it with an Environmental Solutions Agency, which "would encourage innovation, incentivize success and emphasize sound science and new technology over bureaucracy, regulation, litigation and restrictions on American energy."

At the end of the speech, Iowa House Majority Leader Linda Upmeyer, about whom Newt has had very complimentary things to say, said, "I, for one, think that this is just the right guy to be president of the United States. And I think there’s a whole lot of people in this room who agree with me." Asked later about the meeting earlier in the day, she said there was no talk of a White House run, just "policy stuff." But, as Thomas Beaumont writes, "Upmeyer added: 'I’m a real fan. If he decides to run, I’m pretty likely to support him. I think he’s a solutions guy, an ideas guy. And that’s what I think we need.'"

Gingrich, should he run, also would have the support of Georgia Governor Nathan Deal, who announced the news on Tuesday as well.

Joe Gaylord

In my last post, I quote Joe Gaylord on a possible Gingrich run. As Thomas Beaumont made clear in that article, Gaylord would have a substantial role in such a campaign. And that is just natural since he has been Newt's right-hand man for many years. From his bio on AmericanSolutions.com:

Serving as the senior counselor to Speaker Newt Gingrich, the Speaker dubbed him the 'irreplaceable man' for his work as principal architect for the House leadership in mapping out and leading the effort to execute a blueprint to elect a Republican Majority in the House in 1994. For his achievement, his peers in the American Association of Political Consultants named him Co-Campaign Manager of the Year. He led the successful effort for the House leadership to re-elect the Republican House majority in 1996 and 1998 -- a feat not accomplished since the days of Herbert Hoover.

He has recently written his third book, Campaign Solutions, available for free in PDF or audio format.

A quick three-minute video from him:



Newt recounts a conversation weeks before the Revolution:

September 17, 1994, was the day that Joe Gaylord briefed the GOP team. We had a team that was going on a campaign swing on September 17 -- Dan Meyer, Steve Hanser, Kerry Knott, Joe Gaylord, and myself. Literally, as we were taking off at National, I asked both Kerry Knott, who headed up our planning operation, and Dan Meyer, what were we planning on the night after the election? At that time, I was still the minority whip and Bob Michel was still the GOP leader. I said, 'On election night, are we planning for me to be minority leader or to be Speaker?' And Gaylord broke in and said, 'Well, you better be planning to be Speaker, because you’re going to be.' Dan Meyer then turned to him and said, 'OK, before we do anything else, explain this prediction.' Gaylord started in Maine and, by memory, went through every congressional seat in the country and came up with a 52-seat gain. I think we gained 53, so he was off by 1.

Des Moines Register: "Gingrich takes steps toward a presidential run"

Gingrich made a quote to a Texas NBC station that him and wife Callista were "organizing" their enterprises to clear the way for a run last week.

In a column by Thomas Beaumont of the Des Moines Register, Newt once again talks of having to organize them in such a way to make a run at the White House. Beaumont writes, "Gingrich did not take similar steps to deal with his personal and business arrangements before ruling out a 2008 run, aides said."

Joe Gaylord, "Gingrich’s closest political counsel," said that he "would be very surprised" if there is not a Gingrich candidacy. "Does he want to run? You bet. Does he think he can figure out a way to do that? Yes. But he’s got to go through all the processes to make sure he can do it financially," Gaylord said.

Beaumont then sketched a possible outline of a campaign: "Gaylord, an Iowa native, likely would play the role of senior adviser in a Gingrich presidential campaign. Sam Dawson, another longtime Gingrich operative who was part of the 1994 House majority victory, also would be expected to take on a national campaign leadership role, aides said."

Estimating that he spoke to 39,000 people while campaigning for the mid-term elections, Gingrich said, "I have some sense for what’s working and what isn’t....We haven’t had the kind of sweeping reform capability that is survivable since Reagan."

"Gingrich plans to test the reaction to the themes when he addresses the Republican Governors Association meeting in San Diego this week and during four Web-based policy seminars," Beaumont added.