Energy For Gingrich After Iowa Insurance Event Tops Romney

Employees of Nationwide Insurance in Des Moines got a rare chance to listen to the two frontrunners for the Republican presidential nomination within eight days of each other. Too bad the company wouldn't let them share their opinions about the two.

Nationwide has been sponsoring candidate forums at its offices since 1976, said Lori Albrecht, director of corporate communications at the Des Moines headquarters. But before the Gingrich event, they cautioned employees not to share their opinions on the candidates with the media.

"It's just to make sure the associates are as comfortable as possible, some just get surprised," she said about media questions. "They come here expecting to hear from the candidate, they don't really expect 20 or so media." 

Later in the day, Gingrich talked about the rural digital divide and the need for fewer environmental regulations with directors of the Iowa Association of Electric Cooperatives.

Patch spoke with one Nationwide employee who heard Gingrich, Tim Pawlenty, and Romney speak.

"They all share a common vision for America," said Rick Garneau, a supervisor at Nationwide and a volunteer on the employee committee that organizes the candidate forums. "They all want to grow the economy and get back to the core values and grow a strong public sector." 

See Related Story With More Comments from Garneau and Another Event Organizer

Although Romney got more applause from the audience a week ago, Gingrich seemed to have a greater fan factor, with more people jumping out of their seats to get a word with him after speech. Romney gave more of a stump, or inspirational speech. A former history teacher, Gingrich's talk was more of a lecture on the direction he'd take the country. 

Gingrich also countered recent criticism of his immigration stance. He's said he doesn't favor breaking up immigrant families who have been in the country for years by aggressively pursuing deportation of illegal immigrants.

In an event staged for maximum press coverage, officials from Americans for Securing the Borders spoke about their mission to build a double fence the entire length of the U.S. border with Mexico by 2014 and Gingrich signed a giant "pledge" that as president he would build the fence.

Gingrich, hitting on his key messages, countered some of the criticism that he's not a "true conservative" and has flip-flopped by stressing that as president he will focus on a three-pronged approach to radically changing the country's course, through practicality, principles and values. 

The Iowa caucuses are January 3. Patch will have live coverage of the results as they come in.

Gingrich, who was Speaker of the House from 1994-1999, is and author, professor and consultant. He reinforced the contrast between his principles —Reagan economic values of cutting taxes, cutting regulation, and growing energy production in the United States, so "if something happens in the Persian Gulf, the world doesn't slip into a deep depression" — and those of President Obama.

He also criticized what he called a 30-year movement by the courts to take religion out of government and society. Instead of enforcing the Constitutional separation of church and state, Gingrich said it violates the Declaration of Independence, which he says affirms that "power comes from God to each one of you and no government has the ability to take away your rights. ... You loan power to the government, the government doesn't loan power to you."

"If you are determined to drive God out of American life, you are voiding a central principal of the Declaration of Independence," said Gingrich, who added that modern judges "think we're stupid and they get to decide the rules."

With a month left before the Iowa caucuses, Romney and Gingrich appear to have become the frontrunners in the race, and just this week Gingrich has widened the gap as the top candidate in some polls. The damage to Herman Cain's campaign by allegations of sexual harassment and a 13-year extramarital affair, may have benefitted Gingrich more than any other  candidate.

A month ago, Cain and Romney led the Republican pack in Iowa with Ron Paul coming in third, according to the Des Moines Register Iowa Poll.

Afternoon Speech to Electric Cooperative Leaders

Gingrich hammered on themes of smaller government and fewer regulations before a mostly male crowd of the Iowa Association of Electric Cooperatives directors Thursday afternoon in West Des Moines.

In response to a question from the audience about what he would do to close the digital divide that holds rural communities back in economic competitiveness, Gingrich admitted he hadn’t given much thought to the issue.
 
“I would look for some plan to make sure every American has access to the same information,” Gingrich said. “It has to have some kind of favoritism in dealing with the distances in rural America.”

The audience from Iowa farm country also applauded Gingrich’s call to dismantle the Environmental Protection Agency and replace it with an “environmental solutions agency.” Congress is currently considering legislation that would remove naturally occurring dust, such as that associated with farm operations, from EPA oversight.

In some hot water over immigration statements that his opponents say amount to amnesty, Gingrich got applause and laughter from the crowd when he joked that if FedEx and UPS can keep track of 24 million packages a day, the federal government should be able to track down 11 million undocumented workers.

“One of my proposals is that we send a package to everyone here illegally. When it gets there, you know where they are,” he said.

Campaign surge for Gingrich

Several recent developments, nationally and in Iowa, indicate a surge for Gingrich's campaign.

• On Wednesday, Gingrich opened an Iowa campaign headquarters, with two of the key staffers who quit in June.

• Gingrich got top marks on a report card produced by the Iowa Corn Growers Association.

• Rival Ron Paul, who has a strong organization in Iowa and has polled in the top spots, sent an email and released a web video targeting Gingrich for "serial hypocrisy" and not being a true conservative. 

• Gingrich got good reception and praise at two critical forums before conservative Christians, a critical segment of Republican caucus-goers in Iowa.