Gingrich Campaign Press Release - Newt Campaigns in Iowa, Gains New Supporters

In a campaign swing through Iowa today, Newt drew large crowds and thunderous applause for his ideas to turn the country around. He also won over some new supporters.

One local business owner was so moved by Newt's speech that he wrote a check on the spot.

Doug Reichardt, chairman of a nearby company, said he was so impressed Monday that he wrote a $2,500 check to the campaign on the spot.

Lillie Anderson, a former supporter of Gov. Tim Pawlenty, also said she now plans on caucusing for Newt.

Lillie Anderson, 76, of Des Moines, told Gingrich that she wasn't a fan of his going into the 2012 Republican presidential campaign.

But after her first choice, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, dropped out of the race, she plans to vote for Gingrich after watching the last two GOP debates and hearing Gingrich speak Monday. "It was just kind of proving who he was and who I've grown to know more in several debates," said Anderson, who said she likes how Gingrich doesn't criticize his GOP opponents. "He just seems like an outstanding American."

During his speech, Newt slammed the super committee as"maniacally stupid" while offering his own plan for deficit reduction.

Newt Gingrich is a major player in the GOP presidential contest again, and he's using that platform to position himself as the biggest critic of the congressional debt-reduction "supercommittee."

Gingrich, who placed second nationally in a poll released Monday by CNN and Opinion Research, said at an event here this morning that the supercommittee is "maniacally stupid" and "an invitation to economic catastrophe."

The former House speaker said the panel should drop the provision passed by Congress during the summer that would trigger broad cuts if it can't reach a deal by its Nov. 23 deadline. He said that Americans should be skeptical of any plan produced by the supercommittee and shouldn't settle for a halfway measure just because of the trigger provision.

"We should reject any effort to blackmail us into accepting a dumb idea on the grounds that in July we accepted an even dumber idea," Gingrich said.

Gingrich said a threat of massive cuts to defense and domestic program was totally artificial anyway and that the creation of the special debt-reduction panel in the first place is a reflection of Washington's problems.

Click here to learn more about Newt's alternative plan to the super committee.