Gingrich fundraising plummets after Florida loss

(CBS News) The Gingrich campaign announced that it raised $2.6 million in February, a significant decline from its January haul of $5.5 million and the lowest fundraising total posted by the four remaining presidential candidates for the month.

According to Gingrich spokesman R.C. Hammond, the campaign currently has $1.5 million cash on hand, but also had debts equaling that amount. The campaign has carried debt since last summer, when much of the staff resigned over disagreements with the candidate.

The drop-off in Gingrich's fundraising may be explained by his 15 percentage-point loss to Mitt Romney in Florida's primary on Jan. 31st, a major setback that the campaign has yet to fully recover from. Following the loss, Gingrich spent a good part of the next two weeks holding meetings and fundraisers in Nevada and California.

The former House speaker likes to tout the amount of small donors giving to his campaign, but these numbers, too, appear to have slowed in recent days. While campaigning in Georgia in late February, Gingrich said he was approaching 170,000 donors. Nearly a month later, the number has grown by only about 6,000 donors.

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