A Super PAC supporting Newt Gingrich is going negative against Mitt Romney in a major way, sending out mailers to Iowans calling the former governor the “second most dangerous man in America.”
The group, Strong America Now, claims in the letter, which was obtained by NBC News, that Romney “will perpetuate Obama’s slide into financial crisis,” noting that he “has refused to sign a pledge to eliminate the deficit by the end of his first term in office” and that “Romney’s plan comes nowhere close to eliminating the federal deficit - at any point.”
A pledge for positive campaigning has been a major feature of Newt’s latest brand and the former Speaker recently promised to personally condemn any Super PAC that attacked his rivals.
“If anybody does go out and create any kind of super PAC using my name, if they run any negative ads, we will attack them and we will encourage people to give them no money,” Gingrich said.
TPM has reached out to the Gingrich campaign to see whether labeling Romney the “second most dangerous man in America” meets that standard.
Gingrich’s own campaign has already strayed a bit from his pledge, however, sending out statements to the press on Tuesday calling Romney “Massachusetts Moderate Mitt” and attacking him for refusing to call for lower taxes on the wealthy. Newt also ripped into Ron Paul in a recent appearance on CNN, saying he would never vote for him.
Benjy Sarlin
Benjy Sarlin is a reporter for Talking Points Memo and co-writes the campaign blog, TPM2012. He previously reported for The Daily Beast/Newsweek as their Washington Correspondent and covered local politics for the New York Sun.
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