Newt Gingrich: What's he 'exploring,' anyway?
Newt Gingrich on Thursday announced that he鈥檚 going to explore running for president. He has set up a website, NewtExplore2012.com, where donors can give him money to fund this effort.
鈥淲e will try very methodically to lay out the framework for what we do next,鈥� said Mr. Gingrich, speaking to reporters at the Georgia state Capitol.
Well, it sounds like the former House speaker has taken a step toward his political future. But we鈥檙e not sure exactly how big this step is, or in what direction he鈥檚 headed.
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In his brief remarks, Gingrich pointedly stayed away from the word 鈥渃ommittee,鈥� as in 鈥減residential exploratory committee.鈥� These are legal entities organized to raise and spend money on stuff such as polls and testing-the-waters travel. Gingrich is not forming such an organization 鈥� at least not yet.
Why do things that way? It kind of makes Thursday鈥檚 statement an announcement that may have an announcement later about whether he鈥檒l have something further to say at some point.
鈥淛ust by him making an announcement to explore, it doesn鈥檛 mean that he formally has to establish a committee,鈥� says Dave Levinthal, a campaign finance expert at the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP). 鈥淏ut it seems like he鈥檚 moving in that direction anyway.鈥�
Gingrich already has established a number of other kinds of political action committees, .
Aides have said Gingrich has business entities that he has to make sure are separate from any campaign finance organization, and that untangling all of that may take some time.
But presidential exploratory committees remain fairly lightly regulated. They do not have to file with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) or report donors, for example. So establishing one would not force Gingrich to disclose more about his sources of cash.
However, setting up an organized exploratory organization would get Gingrich another day in news headlines. In that sense, Thursday鈥檚 semi-announcement could just be a way of drawing out the media coverage of the possible GOP candidate鈥檚 intentions.
That would not be so unusual, by the way. A National Public Radio reporter once referred to the declaring for president process as the 鈥淒ance of the Seven Veils鈥� for the through its stages.
One thing Gingrich cannot do, however, is directly refer to himself as a candidate. Once a White House wannabe does that, the FEC sounds a claxon, and the aspirant has to set up a full campaign committee, with all its reporting and oversight requirements.
That鈥檚 one reason Gingrich and others in his situation say so constantly on cable news that they have yet to make up their minds about running.
Another reason, of course, might be that they genuinely aren鈥檛 sure yet what they鈥檙e going to do.
