Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, November 20, 1995 TAG: 9511210041
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Cox News Service
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Short
``I'm not going to run,'' Gingrich said during an appearance on ABC's ``This Week with David Brinkley.''
The speaker had planned to wait until Thanksgiving to make a decision, but last week he began lowering expectations of his own candidacy.
Although Gingrich is capable of raising money quickly and could have counted on longtime loyalists to organize a skeletal campaign team quickly, there were formidable obstacles to a candidacy.
The sharp-tongued Georgia congressman has exceptionally high negative poll ratings with the public, and his recent comments linking the government shutdown to what he described as impolite treatment by President Clinton on Air Force One could not have helped.
The House Ethics Committee also is coming under increasing pressure to take action on a host of complaints against him. Friday, two Florida Democrats said they may introduce a resolution daily from now until the House adjourns that would require Ethics Committee Chairwoman Nancy Johnson, R-Conn., to explain why the panel has not acted on the complaints, the first of which was filed 14 months ago.
Finally, Gingrich has a large, unfinished agenda in the House, and the GOP's top priority - a balanced-budget bill - is just now moving toward the critical phase of negotiations with the White House.
Virtually all of Gingrich's closest advisers had urged him not to run, and no 11th-hour effort to draft him into the race materialized after Colin Powell's recent departure from the field.
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB