Peter Stone breaks the news: Newt Gingrich’s extremely successful 527, American Solutions, has shut down.
According to a filing with the IRS on August 18, the 527 spent $2.9 million in the first six months of the year, but only raised $2.4 million in the same period.
A close political confidant to Gingrich since 1989, Gaylord said that the group shuttered its spacious K Street offices on July 7, when the last six staffers were laid off. At one point, the group employed more than three times that number.
Paige Bray, a fundraiser for the 527, notified Gingrich of the decision to close the operation, said Gaylord. Gingrich had no role in the matter, he added.
What I understand is this: Gingrich’s presidential campaign hobbled the group in more ways than one. With Gingrich out of the picture, there was no way to attract donors at the pace American Solutions was used to. That might have been survivable, but Gingrich’s post-announcement appearance on Meet the Press dried up support from the rest of the former speaker’s network. Thousands of e-mails rolled in from angry supporters who thought that Gingrich had undermined Paul Ryan in the interview. Their checkbooks snapped shut. Soon thereafter, so did the doors of American Solutions.
