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Gingrich campaign struggles to rebound

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[July 16, 2011]  ATLANTA, Ga. (AP) -- At a tea party town hall in South Carolina this week, Republican Newt Gingrich ran into the county coroner.

"But I'm not here because you're looking ill or anything," Rae Wooten assured the former House speaker following Tuesday's event in North Charleston. A chuckling Gingrich feigned relief.

But for the embattled White House candidate -- seen by some as a dead man walking in the crowded Republican field -- the encounter may have hit a bit close to home.

Since aides and advisers resigned en masse in early June, Gingrich's presidential bid has been on life support.

And his first campaign finance disclosure filed on Friday provided little reason to be optimistic. Gingrich has raised $2.1 million since getting into the race earlier this year, badly trailing front-runner Mitt Romney.

But perhaps more problematic: He has a little more than $1 million in debt, almost half of that for private air travel.

Gingrich's campaign remains a skeleton operation. He has not moved to replace most of the consultants and staff members who left. And his operations in key states like Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina are reliant on volunteers rather than paid staff.

"I don't view him as a serious candidate and frankly I don't know anyone who does view him as a serious candidate," Tom Perdue, a Republican strategist from Gingrich's old home state of Georgia said.

"It's not uncommon for a candidate to become delusional and that's what I think you are seeing here."

Gingrich argues that the kind of grass-roots, Internet-driven campaign he wants to run can function with a lean staff and that he doesn't need a stable of well-paid consultants to launch the attack ads of a more traditional effort.

"I am very different than normal politicians, and normal consultants found that very hard to deal with," Gingrich said during an appearance in Atlanta last month. He outlined a strategy that would essentially allow him to continue to plug away at issues while the other candidates savage each other and, inevitably, fumble.

Gingrich's tactic: Be the last man standing.

In a nation facing serious challenges, Gingrich casts himself as the candidate who has the experience of dealing with the weighty issues, like the economy.

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Still, for all his decades in politics, Gingrich has always seemed something of a long shot to win the Republican nomination for president. He carries heavy personal baggage -- three marriages and an admission of adultery -- into a primary where evangelical voters hold powerful sway.

His reputation as headstrong and undisciplined came into sharp focus almost immediately after he entered the race for president as he careened through a series of missteps (seeming to back an individual health care mandate that is anathema in his party) and embarrassing revelations (a huge revolving loan account at luxury jeweler Tiffany's).

Then, just as the GOP race seemed to be heating up, he disappeared with his wife, Callista, for a planned cruise off the Greek Isles, leading some to believe he wasn't taking the race seriously.

He has pledged to stay in the race.

Gingrich was in Iowa Friday and aides say he expects to spend more time in the state in coming weeks, even as he plans to skip the Iowa straw poll later this summer that had at one point been seen as a key part of his campaign there.

[Associated Press; By SHANNON McCAFFREY]

Shannon McCaffrey can be reached at http://twitter.com/smccaffrey13.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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