Gingrich earns key endorsement

Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich landed the endorsement of New Hampshire's largest newspaper yesterday while rival Mitt Romney earned a dismissive wave, potentially resetting the race in the state with the first-in-the-nation primary.

For Gingrich, the former House speaker, the backing builds on his recent rise in the polls and quick work to build a campaign after a disastrous start in the summer. Romney, the former Massachusetts governor who has a vacation home in the state and has been called a 'nearly native son of New Hampshire,' absorbed the blow heading into the Jan. 10 vote that's vital to his campaign strategy.

'We don't back candidates based on popularity polls or big-shot backers. We look for conservatives of courage and conviction who are independent-minded, grounded in their core beliefs about this nation and its people, and best equipped for the job,' the New Hampshire Union Leader wrote in its front page editorial, which was as much a promotion of Gingrich as a discreet rebuke of Romney.

The Union Leader's editorial telegraphed conservatives' concerns about Romney's shifts on crucial issues of abortion and gay rights were unlikely to fade. Those worries have led Romney to keep Iowa's Jan. 3 caucuses - where conservatives hold great sway - at arm's length.

At the same time, the endorsement boosts Gingrich's conservative credentials. He spent the week defending his immigration policies against accusations that they are a form of amnesty. Today, Gingrich takes a campaign swing through South Carolina, the South's first primary state.

Romney, taking a few days' break for the Thanksgiving holiday, has kept focused on a long-term strategy that doesn't lurch from one development to another. Last week, he picked up the backing of Sen. John Thune, a South Dakota conservative, to add to his impressive roster of supporters.

The Union Leader's rejection of Romney wasn't surprising despite his efforts to woo state leaders. The newspaper rejected Romney four years ago in favor of Arizona Sen. John McCain, using front page columns and editorials to promote McCain and criticize Romney.

'It helped McCain a lot because it buttressed the time he spent there. McCain camped out in New Hampshire and was able to make good with the Union Leader,' said Craig Stevens, a spokesman for Romney's 2008 bid who is not working for a presidential candidate this time.

'Now, the speaker has to spend the time there, too,' Stevens said.

Since his first run, Romney courted publisher Joseph McQuaid. Earlier this year Romney and his wife, Ann, had dinner with the McQuaids at the Bedford Village Inn near Manchester, hoping to reset the relationship. It didn't prove enough.

Romney's advisers were quick to point out that Gingrich went into October with more than $1 million in campaign debt.

Romney, meanwhile, was sitting on a pile of money and only last week began running television ads - a luxury Gingrich can't yet afford.