iWatch News investigations of Newt Gingrich as he launches a presidential bid

Introduction

Newt Gingrich, making his first run for elected office in more than a decade, is aiming high—the Republican presidential nomination.

The former House Speaker was announcing his bid Wednesday. Gingrich’s campaign will be bolstered by as many as 2 million supporters collected over time by his K Street entities, often dubbed “Newt Inc.”

iWatch News has reported extensively on the Georgia Republican. Here are a few of the greatest hits:

Newt Gingrich is straddling a fine line: Even as he courts evangelicals wary of his two divorces, a Gingrich political committee has taken millions from a casino titan whose industry is often anathema to the Christian right. Call it Saints and Sinners. Here is Peter H. Stone’s investigation into his dueling constituencies.

John Aloysius Farrell analyzed Gingrich’s support for ethanol even as he takes big bucks from the fossil fuel industry. “I am not a lobbyist for ethanol,” Newt Gingrich declared in a mid-winter spat with the editors of The Wall Street Journal over his support for government subsidies for alternative fuel. Gingrich was a hired consultant to a major ethanol lobbying group—at more than $300,000 a year.

Stone also reported on the political unit of a religious group called Renewing American Leadership. Gingrich, its honorary chairman, is helping the group raise $500,000 to $1 million for high-stakes political issues.

The former speaker has picked long-time GOP operative David Carney to help with events in pivotal primary state, New Hampshire. Stone reported on Americans for Job Security — a shadowy advocacy group founded by Carney that poured almost $9 million dollars into negative ads in the 2010 elections.