Gingrich campaign raises big money, some stays in family

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By James Salzer

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Newt Gingrich's presidential campaign raised almost $10 million in the final quarter of 2011, and a chunk of it stayed in Gingrich's family and their businesses, according to new disclosures.

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Newt Gingrich's presidential campaign has paid him $47,000 for a list of supporters and paid one of his companies $67,000 for web hosting during the final months of 2011. His wife Callista is president of the media production company, Gingrich Productions, that did the web hosting.

Joe Burbank, MCT Newt Gingrich's presidential campaign has paid him $47,000 for a list of supporters and paid one of his companies $67,000 for web hosting during the final months of 2011. His wife Callista is president of the media production company, Gingrich Productions, that did the web hosting.

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Gingrich's campaign paid him $47,000 for a list of supporters and paid one of his companies $67,000 for web hosting during the final months of 2011. His wife Callista is president of the media production company, Gingrich Productions, that did the web hosting.

Gingrich's campaign also reported paying the candidate $206,000 in travel reimbursements.

It is common for campaigns to reimburse candidates or staffers for travel and not unusual to buy lists of supporter/past donors from groups affiliated with a candidate.

The report said the campaign paid $21,811 to his daughter Jackie's company, Cushman Enterprises, for "fundraising consulting" and travel, and paid $900 to his other daughter, Kathy Lubbers, for travel. The campaign previously paid Cushman Enterprises $34,322 for "communications services," "fundraising consulting," travel and office supplies, according to disclosures. The campaign said it owed Cushman Enterprises another $7,500 at the end of the year.

The report released Tuesday showed Gingrich raised $9.8 million in the last three months of the year. But the campaign spent much of that -- about $8.1 million. The campaign finished the year with $2.1 million in the bank and owed just under $1.2 million, including $352,000 to charter jet company Moby Dick Airways and $472,000 to InfoCision of Akron, Ohio, for telemarketing services.

By contrast, GOP front-runner Mitt Romney raised $24 million during the final three months of the year and spent $19 million. He had $20 million banked at the end of the year.

Through the end of the year, the Romney campaign had raised $56 million; Gingrich $12.7 million.

Romney has been outspending the field for months, and his campaign's ads and those of the "super PAC" supporting him were credited with overwhelming Gingrich during the recent Florida primary.

The Gingrich campaign, however, said its candidate got new life after winning the Jan. 21 South Carolina Republican vote and that its fundraising picked up dramatically in January, taking in about $5 million last month.

Disclosures suggest the Gingrich campaign took on more staff during the last quarter of 2011, when the candidate's fortunes rose, then fell, then rose and fell again. The campaign also spent a bundle on fundraising -- almost $1 million on direct mail and Internet fundraising.

The campaign also paid about $300,000 in legal fees during the final quarter to McKenna Long & Aldridge, an Atlanta law firm that represents the candidate.