Here’s a summary of where the GOP candidates are spending their time this week.  Newt Gingrich, who really has campaigned strictly via debates, is ramping up in Iowa.  His campaign staff is lean at best as most of his early professionals quit in August or September.  Still, Gingrich is compensating for a lack of money and staff by pushing for earned media as it is called, or better put:  HEADLINES.  His unconventional campaign continues and Politico has a summary on all the candidates for the week:

“Gingrich’s 90-minute Lincoln-Douglas-style debate against the former Utah governor at St. Anselm College is a reminder of the unorthodox campaign he continues to run: Most front-runners wouldn’t take the risk of mixing it up with and punching down at an opponent stuck in single digits.

It’s not the first time Gingrich has engaged a foe in an event modeled after the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates — in early November, he met Herman Cain at a conference hall near Houston and held a perfectly agreeable 90-minute discussion on entitlement reform.

But strong debate performances, including his latest Saturday night in Des Moines, have powered Gingrich’s unexpected comeback. Without enough money to saturate the airwaves and without the organization to win on the ground, he will continue to take all the earned media he can get.

This in part explains why he and three other candidates — Michele Bachmann, Rick

Perry and Rick Santorum — have also confirmed for Mike Huckabee’s Wednesday screening of an anti-abortion documentary, called “Gift of Life,” in Des Moines.

Thursday brings the last formal debate before the Jan. 3 caucuses, now just three weeks away. The Fox News forum in Sioux City will offer the final opportunity for Gingrich’s rivals to bloody him in front of a national television audience. Most everyone has motive to knock him down a peg, but it won’t be easy if his Saturday performance is any indication.

Huckabee's "Gift of Life" Screening..designed to hurt Romney?

As Mitt Romney grapples with his slip in the polls, he’s intensifying his retail campaigning and opening himself up more to the press. He did a New Hampshire town hall Sunday, will receive a big endorsement Monday — Manchester Mayor Ted Gatsas will back him at Chez Vachon, a campaign trail staple — then heads to a lumber mill in Madison later in the day. He’s got fundraisers in New York on Wednesday before returning to Iowa for the last part of the week; details of his schedule have not been announced. The goal? Capitalize on establishment unease with Gingrich in what will increasingly be covered as a two-man race.

Rick Perry Still...Running

Rick Perry, going all-in in Iowa, kicks off a 14-day, 44-city bus tour Wednesday. Retail politics is what he’s good at, so the trip represents his back-to-basics approach — and positioning to pick up conservative supporters of Gingrich if he fades. The Texas governor begins the trip in Council Bluffs, on the western edge of the state, before heading to northeastern Iowa and then heading south. He plans to take only four days off for Christmas.

Rick Santorum will also spend the week in Iowa — no surprise there. The former Pennsylvania senator’s two oldest children will travel with him, as he continues to barnstorm parts of the state other candidates aren’t visiting.

Ron Paul spends Tuesday and Wednesday in New Hampshire before heading to Iowa for the debate. He has a town hall Tuesday night in Peterborough and has three events in the Granite State Wednesday.

Huntsman rolls out his New Hampshire leadership team on Monday, reinforcing his commitment to the state where he’s bet it all.”

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Filed under: Featured, Inside The KC, Politics by Sonja Eddings Brown, Dec 12, 2011