Key members of Republican Newt Gingrich's presidential campaign team resigned yesterday in a blow to his 2012 election hopes.
Rick Tyler, who quit as Gingrich's spokesman, cited "a difference of opinion on how to move forward" as the reason he, campaign manager Rob Johnson, senior strategist Dave Carney and others left the campaign.
The mass exodus from Mr Gingrich's campaign, which has sputtered from the beginning, could scare off would-be financial contributors and other supporters.
Texas governor Rick Perry, considering a late entry into the 2012 contest, could benefit since Mr Johnson and Mr Carney are former Perry aides who left his side when he had earlier ruled out a race.
Mr Gingrich said in a statement he is still a candidate. "I am committed to running the substantive, solutions-oriented campaign I set out to run earlier this spring," he said. "The campaign begins anew Sunday in Los Angeles."
The Republican race to find a candidate to challenge President Barack Obama has been slow to start, and Republicans complain the candidates so far are not strong enough.
Mr Obama retains a big lead over possible Republican rivals in the 2012 election despite anxiety about the economy and the country's future, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll this week.
Mr Gingrich, the former speaker of the US House of Representatives, faced questions about his commitment to the campaign. Shortly after launching his 2012 race last month, he went on a two-week vacation with his third wife, Callista.
Mr Tyler, a longtime fixture at Gingrich's side, said there were questions about "mostly a time commitment," declining to comment further. "We had two different visions of a path to victory," Tyler said.
The list of resigning officials included leaders of Gingrich's operations in the early voting states of New Hampshire, Iowa and South Carolina as well as Gingrich's home state of Georgia.
In a another blow, former Georgia governor Sonny Perdue, who had been Mr Gingrich's national campaign co-chairman, announced he had joined the presidential campaign of former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty.
Mr Gingrich unveiled his campaign in May and within days ran afoul of Republican leaders by criticising Representative Paul Ryan's proposal to reform Medicare. Then it was disclosed he had carried as much as $500,000 (€347,000) in debt to jewelry company Tiffany from 2005 to 2006.
Mr Gingrich was noticeably absent from a conference of the religious right last weekend at which several Republican presidential candidates spoke.
Reuters