MANCHESTER, N.H. (Jan.8, 2012) — For Newt Gingrich, it’s getting close to do or die time.
Gingrich has been trailing badly in New Hampshire’s polls. On Friday, his presidential ambitions got a boost when billionaire Sheldon Adelson made a $5 million contribution to Gingrich’s campaign. Matt Masur is a political professor at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampsire. Masure says even $5 million might not be enough now for Gingrich.
“He has been counted out before and he re-bounded. — but at a certain point the field is going to have to be trimmed down.”
(Matt Masur, political scientist at Saint Anselm College)
Masur says New Hampshire is important but South Carolina is where Gingrich has to do well.
“They see South Carolina as representing a very different part of the electorate. And if they can have a strong showing there, it might show electability in the general election that maybe New Hampshire doesn’t necessarily show.”
(Matt Masur, political scientist at Saint Anselm College)
Gingrich has made several trips to South Carolina since the Iowa caucuses where he has made large investments in his advertising. The South Carolina primary is less than two weeks away.
R.C. Hammond is Gingrich’s press secretary. He says, Gingrich is use to people counting him out.
“We were dead in the summer — we came back. We were dead in the fall — we came back. If there is one thing Gingrich does well — it’s come back.”
(R.C. Hammond, campaign press secretary for Gingrich)
In Manchester, New Hampshire, Amanda Watkins WATD News.
(Amanda Watkins, a graduate student in the broadcast and digital journalism program at Syracuse University, is covering the New Hampshire primary for WATD Radio)
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