
 
 Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s 2012 presidential campaign suffered a mass staff exodus on Thursday. REUTERS/Jason Reed 
 
 “When the campaign and the candidate disagree on the path, they’ve got to part ways,” said Rick Tyler, a longtime Gingrich spokesman who was among those who left the campaign. 
 
 Tyler as well as Rob Johnson, Gingrich’s campaign manager, Dave Carney and Katon Dawson, senior strategists to the effort, media consultant Sam Dawson, Iowa strategist Craig Schoenfeld, South Carolina operative Walter Whetsell and Georgia-based adviser Scott Rials have all stepped aside. Much of Gingrich’s early state operation was also headed for the exits, according to a one senior campaign source. 
 
 In the immediate aftermath of the departures, which several sources said came at a meeting Thursday in Gingrich’s Washington office, Gingrich released a statement via Facebook pledging to continue in the race. 
 
 “I am committed to running the substantive, solutions-oriented campaign I set out to run earlier this spring,” Gingrich wrote. “The campaign begins anew Sunday in Los Angeles.” 
 
 Among the issues leading to the resignations, according to knowledgeable sources, was the two-week vacation that Gingrich and his wife, Callista, insisted upon taking against the advice of his top political staff. Coming as it did after one of the most disastrous campaign launches in recent memory, it raised questions as to whether Gingrich would be willing to “commit time to the grassroots,” said Tyler. 
 
 Gingrich had returned earlier this week and visited New Hampshire but remained largely off the campaign trail. 
 
 
 
 View Photo Gallery: A look at the former House speaker now seeking the GOP presidential nomination. 
 
 Carney and Johnson are longtime aides to Texas Gov. Rick Perry who has said in recent days that he is contemplating a run for president himself in 2012. The Carney and Johnson resignations will fuel speculation that Perry is moving toward the race. 
 
 The Gingrich campaign had struggled from the start. 
 
 In early March, Joe Gaylord, a longtime Gingrich associate, said he was set to announce. Tyler denied that claim — evidence of the lack of coordination even within Gingrich’s inner circle. 
 
 When Gingrich finally did get into race last month he managed to step on his own announcement by denouncing Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan’s plans for a huge Medicare overhaul as “right wing social engineering”. 
 
 That brought scads of conservative condemnation down on Gingrich and, at around the same time, reports surfaced that Gingrich had carried a six-figure debt at the Tiffany’s jewelry store. Gingrich refused to explain what accounted for such a large debt, stoking further questions and extending the story’s life. 
 
 Tyler issued a statement blaming the media for Gingrich’s problems — “the literati sent out their minions to do their bidding,” he said — that managed to make matters worse. 
 
 After such an ignominious start to the campaign, Gingrich’s decision to proceed with a two week vacation baffled political observers and vexed his own strategists 
 
 Gingrich has long ridden to the beat of his own political drummer. After years as a backbencher in the House, Gingrich spearheaded Republicans’ 1994 takeover of the chamber and was chosen as Speaker. Four years later, he was gone amid a disastrously wrong-headed prediction that the GOP would pick up seats. 
 
 Gingrich very nearly entered the 2008 presidential race but backed away at the last minute amid lingering concerns that he could not fully disentangle himself from his vast American Solutions organization — a vast fundraising and idea generation factory. 
 
 Senior political reporter Dan Balz contributed to this report. 
 
 Read more on PostPolitics.com 
 
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 NewtGingrich.com has been occupied 

 Newt Gingrich’s top staff quit en masse Thursday, throwing into question whether his already troubled presidential campaign can continue. 
 
 Two sources close to the situation confirmed that campaign manager Rob Johnson, strategists Sam Dawson and Dave Carney, spokesman Rick Tyler and consultants Katon Dawson in South Carolina and Craig Schoenfeld in Iowa quit to protest what one called a “different vision” for the campaign. 
 
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 reset VIDEO: Gingrich's 2012 entrance VIDEO: 'Social engineering' POLITICO 44 
 
 In a statement on Facebook following the stunning news, Gingrich said he will stay in the race. 
 
 “I am committed to running the substantive, solutions-oriented campaign I set out to run earlier this spring,” he wrote. 
 
 But with his entire high command having left at once, that task will be considerably more difficult. 
 
 The mass resignation was, one source said, “a team decision.” 
 
 “The professional team came to the realization that the direction of the campaign they sought and Newt’s vision for the campaign were incompatible,” said Carney. 
 
 Gingrich is intent on using technology and standing out at debates to get traction while his advisers believe he needs to run a campaign that incorporates traditional, grass-roots techniques as well as new ideas. 
 
 “To be successful in Iowa, you need to be here, [and] taking a look at the way the schedule was, he’s not scheduled to be here in June at all, and he’s got very few appearances in July,” said Schoenfeld. “You want to make sure that you give yourself a chance to be successful.” 
 
 Another source added: “We felt like he’d be better off if he had the opportunity to proceed with his vision and how he wants to do things.” 
 
 One official said the last straw came when Gingrich went ahead last week with a long-planned cruise in the Greek isles with his wife. 
 
 After his bumpy start, rumors began to circulate in the political community the former House speaker’s days as a candidate were numbered. But the collective decision by his high command to quit makes it likely that his demise will be hastened. 
 
 Officials like Dawson and Tyler have advised for Gingrich for years. And Johnson, who ran Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s campaign last year, was seen as bringing a measure of stability to the organization. 
 
 Speculation immediately started to build as to whether Johnson and Carney, Perry’s chief political adviser, will start planning a presidential campaign for the Texan. 
 
 “It means they’ll be thinking even harder down in Austin,” longtime GOP strategist Tucker Eskew said of the news. 
 
 But Carney insisted his decision was unrelated to Perry. 
 
 “It has no impact, nor will it [on Perry],” he said.
– This might just do it for Newt Gingrich's White House hopes: His campaign staff just quit. Or at least the ones running the show, including campaign manager Rob Johnson, Gingrich's spokesman, and four top strategists and consultants, reports Politico. They cited a "different vision" for the campaign, and it didn't help that Gingrich insisted on taking a two-week cruise instead of working to mend fences after his disastrous start. (See here and here.) "It’s not clear how—or whether—Gingrich will remain in the race," notes the Fix blog at the Washington Post. Both outlets say the top campaign aides bristled at Gingrich's reluctance to use traditional grass-roots campaigning to get his message out. Politico notes that both Johnson and another strategist to quit, Dave Carney, are closely allied with Rick Perry, which will renew speculation about whether the Texas governor will jump in.