Gingrich feels ‘liberated’ by shake-up

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) said he feels “liberated” by the shake-up last week that resulted in the resignations of most members of his presidential campaign’s senior staff.

Gingrich characterized his disagreement with top aides as being over whether to run a grassroots-style campaign versus a more traditional approach. The former Speaker’s campaign manager, longtime spokesman and captains in key primary states resigned en masse last week over the disagreement.

“I frankly feel liberated,” Gingrich said Tuesday night on Fox News. “With the exception of only one person, all of my original team is still with me. And in every single state where we lost some people, we’ve actually gained new people who are excited by the idea that we could have a genuinely different grassroots campaign to change Washington.”

The resignations were seen as a potentially fatal blow to Gingrich’s bid for the Republican presidential nomination, especially after the missteps and gaffes that had plagued the early days of his campaign. Gingrich has sought to rebound, though, by participating in Monday’s presidential debate and hitting the campaign trail.

Gingrich said he’s “for an idea-oriented campaign at the grass roots” that not only wins the presidency, but also helps retake the majority in the Senate and build Republicans’ majority in the House.

“My vision is of a people-oriented grassroots campaign where newt.org becomes the center of new solutions, new ideas, new energy — a campaign that’s inclusive, that brings together everybody in America of every ethnic background who wants to change Washington,” he said. “And I think that that was so different from the normal Republican model, that there just wasn’t a fit.”

Still, Gingrich’s campaign faces major struggles. His support took a tumble in a Gallup poll released Monday, and his campaign is in need of cash to help fund a robust operation.