Super PACs add millions to efforts against Gingrich

By Martha T. Moore, USA TODAY
Updated 25m ago Comments

The newest weapon in the political arsenal may have claimed its first victim: Newt Gingrich.

Restore Our Future, a super PAC supporting Mitt Romney, has a series of ads in Iowa targeting Newt Gingrich, including this one that slams the former House speaker for his admitted mistakes.

Millions of dollars in negative television advertising from super PACs supporting Gingrich rivals has aired in Iowa and voila: four Iowa opinion surveys released since Wednesday show a precipitous plunge in Gingrich's support.

Super PACs can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money on behalf of a candidate but cannot coordinate or be in contact with a candidate's campaign.

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To some in politics, the cause and effect is obvious. David Axelrod, a top strategist for the Obama re-election campaign, drew a straight line between the two, via Twitter.

"Today's polls reflect the devastation inflicted on Gingrich by pro-Romney Super PAC, which has nuked Newt with millions in negative ads," he said shortly after a CNN poll was released late Wednesday. The poll showed Gingrich in fourth place in Iowa.

Read all On Politics posts Restore Our Future, a super PAC supporting former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, and Make Us Great Again, which supports Texas Gov. Rick Perry, have pounded Iowans with television ads hammering Gingrich. The pro-Romney PAC has spent nearly $2.7 million on ads in the state, the Associated Press reported.

"They rained thousands of (ratings) points of negatives on him and it took its toll,'' says Steve Grubbs, a longtime Iowa political analyst who backed Herman Cain but is now unaffiliated. The super PACs bought so much airtime that an average viewer could have seen an anti-Gingrich ad 70 times, he says. "They were loaded for bear and once Newt stepped out and took the lead in the polls they unleashed hell on him.''

The campaign of Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, also blasted Gingrich for "serial hypocrisy" in its ads. The Perry and Romney campaigns also recently released ads featuring the candidates' wives, perhaps an implicit contrast to the three-times-married Gingrich.

But the heavy hitting came from the two super PACs, which also filled mailboxes with anti-Gingrich mailings, Grubbs says. "The sheer volume, I would get five anti-Newt pieces a day from super PACS almost every day."

Restore Our Future spokeswoman Brittany Gross declined comment. Make Us Great Again did not respond to a request for comment. On Thursday, the group released a new ad: a mocking mash-up of Gingrich saying "I made a mistake."

Gingrich is not the first GOP candidate to slip off a polling peak. But his descent is the first to follow a wave of attack ads. Cain was undone by accusations of sexual misconduct, Perry by poor debate performances, and Rep. MicheleBachmann by too-early timing and lack of organization.

Gingrich's situation combines the issue of super PACs with an old political adage: Never let a negative attack go unanswered. "The problem for Gingrich was that he didn't have the resources or organization to respond," says Tim Hagle, a political science professor at the University of Iowa.

Gingrich has criticized Romney, his chief rival, for not reining in the attacks — which Romney says he can't legally do. Meanwhile, Gingrich's ads, of which there are far fewer, remain positive.

The attack ads gave Iowans a quick history lesson on Gingrich, says Steffen Schmidt, a political science professor at Iowa State University. "Most people didn't know or had forgotten about his 'colorful' past."

They reminded voters of the turbulence around Gingrich when he was speaker of the House in the 1990s. Iowa caucus-goers tend to be older, so they certainly were around when Gingrich was speaker of the House. But they might have forgotten the details about the revelation of Gingrich's extramarital affair (with his current wife Callista) which occurred while he was involved in impeachment proceedings against President Clinton.

"All the really bad stuff about Newt were things that only real news junkies knew," Grubbs says, including his consultant work for mortgage lender Freddie Mac. "Suddenly, Romney started winning the electability primary."

Although the negative ads didn't air in New Hampshire, which holds its primary Jan. 10, Gingrich has slid in the polls there too. In addition to the paid ads, a chorus of disapproval from news pundits and other Republicans drove Gingrich down, Hagle says. "It wasn't just the super PACs providing negative information on Gingrich."

Gingrich had been subjected to withering commentary by his former congressional colleagues. That damaged Gingrich, Schmidt says. Although Tea Party Republicans regard establishment Republicans with skepticism, they still "want a candidate who at least has the support of most of his own party," he says.

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