Gingrich Quit Race Owing $4.8 Million, FEC Reports Show

Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich quit the race for the Republican presidential nomination with his campaign $4.8 million in debt, Federal Election Commission reports show.

The candidate himself was owed $580,134 for travel at the end of April. His largest creditor was air charter company Moby Dick Airways, owed $1 million. Gingrich also owed more than $200,000 for media.

Gingrich, who officially ended his campaign on May 2, raised $786,783 last month, bringing his total to $23.4 million for the campaign. He had $806,751 in the bank at the end of April.

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U.S. Representative Ron Paul of Texas, who announced on May 14 he was ending active campaigning for the Republican presidential nomination, reported raising $2 million last month to bring his total to $39.1 million. He had $2.5 million in cash on hand.

Paul’s fundraising total is second to the $88.7 million raised through March 30 by presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney, who was to file his April report later today with the FEC. The deadline is midnight.

Romney’s allied political action committee, Restore Our Future, raised $4.6 million last month, bringing its total to $56.5 million.

Pro-Romney PAC

The PAC’s donations last month included $1 million from John Kleinheinz, president of Fort Worth, Texas-based Kleinheinz Capital Partners Inc.; $985,000 from Harold Hamm, chief executive officer of Continental Resources Inc. based in Oklahoma City; and $250,000 from Stephen Zide, a managing director at Boston-based Bain Capital LLC, the private equity firm that Romney co-founded.

C. Boyden Gray, White House counsel to President George H.W. Bush, gave $50,000.

The super-PAC had $8.2 million in the bank entering May. The PAC announced on May 2 it will spend $4.3 million on ads praising Romney for helping to find a business partner’s daughter who had gone missing in New York City, and criticizing two supporters of President Barack Obama, Hilary Rosen and comedian Bill Maher, for comments about Romney’s wife, Ann, not working outside the home.