By NBC’s Ali Weinberg
GREENVILLE, S.C. – Campaigning in South Carolina on Thursday, both Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry visited a hotel ballroom to seek the support of a crucial coalition here, as well as in Iowa: Evangelical pastors.

They were both featured speakers at the Pastors Policy Briefing, a gathering of roughly 400 church leaders hosted by the South Carolina Renewal Project, a branch of an under-the-radar evangelical group that holds similar events in other major primary states.

Gingrich and Perry– one recently thrust into the glare of public favor, the other trying to get back in it – gave speeches that demonstrated vastly different levels of comfort with religious rhetoric.

“A message that would fit in”

Shortly before Gingrich took the podium, the pastors watched a video about The Response, a prayer meeting hosted by Perry in Texas, spinoff versions of which are being planned in Iowa and South Carolina.

Gingrich first seemed to acknowledge that the tone of the revival-style gathering was one he was less familiar with.

“I was trying to think about a message that would fit in with the Response,” he said.

He spoke, as he has at many campaign events, about America’s founding documents: the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Federalist Papers. Not mentioned: the Bible.

In fact, his speech was mostly free of religious references, save his belief that there will be “a great awakening in the sense of Whitefield,” an influential revivalist preacher in the mid-1700’s.

“I think that there will, in fact, be an astonishing desire by the American people to pursue freedom in a spiritual way,” he continued.

Gingrich did ask for the audience’s prayers when he described his presidential ambitions, seemingly still coming to terms with the possibility of his own success.  

“The most sobering thing that has happened to me this year is the very real possibility I’ll end up as president,” he said. “It’s one thing to run. That’s a big jump. Then you think you might be the Republican candidate. That’s a big jump. The other thing to think is as a Republican candidate you might beat Barack Obama. That’s pretty big. Then you suddenly realize if those three things happen, I would then have to serve as president,” he said.

Some of those in the audience seemed skeptical of Gingrich’s immigration policy, which would allow some longtime illegal residents of the U.S. to stay here. Gingrich addressed those concerns during a question-and-answer session after his speech.

“These are people who would be married, have children, grandchildren, have ties in your communities, may well be in some of your churches, candidly,” he said.

“I think churches would become sanctuaries,” he added, making a compassionate appeal. “I think you would find people who would just say, ‘we’re not going to let you take our church members away.’”

Gingrich was also asked whether he would “seek God first” when making decisions as president.

“I feel like I have to do that,” Gingrich said simply, to scattered “amens.”

“That is my message”

Unlike Gingrich, who added a few mentions of revival and prayer to an otherwise standard speech, Perry tailored his entire address to his Evangelical audience – clearly a group with which he was comfortable.

“A lot of those that criticized said it’s not the role of a public official to be involved calling people together to pray,” he said of hosting The Response. “This wasn’t about me. This was about Him.”

Sprinkling Biblical passages throughout his speech, he said that he keeps Joshua 1:9 (“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged…”) behind his desk at the statehouse.

“That is my message,” he said, displaying none of Gingrich’s apparent difficulty in finding a topic of discussion.

Perry also related some Biblical figures to himself. “Even if you suffer for righteousness sake, you are blessed,” Perry said, quoting from the book of Peter.

“It wasn’t lost on me about who said that: Brother Peter,” Perry said, pastors nodding in understanding. “Peter whose mouth sometimes seemed to work faster than his brain. I can really relate to Peter,” he continued, the audience laughing with him.

His speech also took a turn for the biographical, speaking about his mother’s influence on his spirituality.

“If there was a revival within driving distance, we were there,” he said. “I say, Jesus Christ is the reason I’m saved by his grace, but it was my momma who helped me get there,” he said, jokingly.

Perry struck a humble tone when speaking of his own presidential prospects. “I know whether this journey leads me to Washington D.C or it leads me back to Austin, Texas, I know His will will be done,” he said.

But while his fate may rest in the hands of God, Perry also applied his new consultant-made, Evangelical-friendly campaign strategy.

“We have an administration that is, from my perspective, engaged in a war against religion,” he said, slamming Obama’s policies on abortion, gay marriage and gays serving openly in the military.

Perry also briefly took on Gingrich, when he was asked to weight in on the suggestion that some illegal immigrants should be allowed to stay in the U.S. “Newt and I disagree on that issue. I’m not for amnesty in any form or fashion,” he said.

While Gingrich tried for a compassionate appeal, saying some pastors might have illegal immigrants in their churches, Perry seemed to avoid looking “soft” on the issue, calling his Texas DREAM Act, in which some illegal immigrants can pay in-state college tuition, “a state sovereignty issue,” steering clear of his past assertion that the law’s opponents are heartless.

He also took an aggressive tone on border security.

“When I’m the president of the United States, within 12 months, that border will be secure and shut down. Count on it!” he said, his tone noticeably harder. “I’m sorry. I get a little bit…” he trailed off as the audience drowned him in applause.

While Gingrich received a light ovation for saying that he felt that he would “have to” be guided by God in the White House, Perry’s answer to a similar question was more enthusiastically received.

“I told my congregation that I would endorse the man that would not compromise his faith. Are you that man? “ A pastor asked Perry.

“I’m not answering you. I’m answering to the Lord Jesus Christ. Because I’ve already answered that question for him, and that answer is yes,” he said.

But addressing a room of Evangelicals did leave Perry vulnerable to questions about Mormonism, the faith of two of his presidential opponents. At the very end of the question-and-answer portion, Perry was urged to “say Mormonism is a cult.”

As some members of the audience applauded, Perry left the stage without saying a word.

A parting image

Both Gingrich and Perry participated in a group prayer after their speeches, in which the pastors were invited to approach the candidates, lay their hands on them and worship.

Standing on the podium, Gingrich was flanked by a few pastors, who, heads bowed, reached for his shoulders as Luis Cataldo, a minister who hosted The Response with Perry, said a prayer.

But Perry, who had left the stage by the time the prayer began, attracted many more pastors to his side. Kneeling, he was almost completely concealed by those surrounding him as Cataldo began the prayer.

When the prayer was over, Perry rose slowly, hugging and shaking the hands of those who surrounded him with an ease that suggested that for Perry, unlike for Gingrich, this gathering was as familiar to him as those revivals his mother used to bring him to. 

Richard Shiro / AP

Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich speaks at Tommy's Ham House in Greenville , S.C., on Wednesday.

 COLUMBIA, S.C. -- Newt Gingrich pushed back on a New York Times article published Wednesday that explored how he avoided the legal definition of “lobbyist” while still providing many of the services that registered lobbyists do.

In an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, taped Wednesday morning, Gingrich said that talking up issues important to his clients with former colleagues represented nothing more than his sharing personal opinions as a private citizen.

“If Newt Gingrich believes that and happens to also be working with companies who care about that, and I walk in to see friends of mine and talk about the issue, they’re responding to what Newt Gingrich believes,” he said.

He also addressed a specific instance in 2005, mentioned in the Times article, in which he held a press conference with Rep. Patrick Kennedy and Sen. Hillary Clinton to push for passage of a bill to increase the use of electronic health records.

 While Gingrich said in 2005 after the press briefing, “We’re launching a bill,” he said on Wednesday that he was not advocating for specific legislation but simply using the shock value of appearing with two New York Democrats to bring attention to a shared priority.   

“We sent a signal we ought to have health information technology you could never have done if you were alone,” he said. “And so they want to say, well, isn’t that lobbying? No. That’s called being a citizen. As a citizen, I’m allowed to have an opinion. As a relatively famous citizen, I can broadcast my opinion in lots of places.”

In part of the interview that was cut from the broadcast version, Gingrich also stood by his comments about not having to lobby because he was already wealthy, although he said the statement “may have sounded a little bit too self-serving.”

“I made pretty good money out of speeches. I didn’t have to lobby. I had 13 New York Times bestsellers out of my 24 books, I was doing speeches, I had lots of things going on,” he said.

NBC watched part of the hour-long interview as it was taped at Tommy's Ham House in Greenville just after Gingrich gave a town hall there. 

Jamie Novogrod / NBC News

As her mother, Jean LaFave, looks on, Michele Bachmann signs books at Barnes & Noble in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

WEST DES MOINES, Iowa -- In a continuing back and forth over Newt Gingrich’s immigration policy, Michele Bachmann criticized the former House speaker Saturday over a letter he co-signed in 2004 in support of President George W. Bush's immigration initiative.

Bachmann's campaign staff handed copies of the letter to the media Saturday morning before an event marking the release of Bachmann's new book, "Core of Conviction," at the Radisson Hotel in Davenport.

“He has a long history of supporting amnesty,” Bachmann told reporters of Gingrich, “and that’s not something that people in Iowa are supporting.”

The letter, originally printed in the Wall Street Journal in February 2004, was sent to the newspaper by the National Foundation for American Policy, a conservative think tank.  Its signers include Gingrich, Jack Kemp, Grover Norquist, and others. Ed Goeas, Bachmann's former campaign pollster, also signed the letter.

Asked by NBC whether Goeas’ signature blunted her attack, Bachmann said, “I did not know him at the time that he signed that letter, nor does he share my opinion.” Goeas left the Bachmann campaign in early October.

The letter supported Bush’s effort to launch a temporary worker program. "We applaud the president and believe his approach holds great promise to reduce illegal immigration and establish a humane, orderly, and economically sensible approach to migration," the letter reads.

Gingrich has taken fire from Bachmann and other candidates, including Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum, since Tuesday's CNN debate in Washington, where he called for a "humane" immigration policy for illegal immigrants "who have children and grandchildren, who are members of the community."

Bachmann’s charge that the policy amounts to "amnesty" is being met with increasingly sharp language by the Gingrich campaign.

"Either Michele Bachmann can't get her facts straight on understanding immigration reform, or she is intentionally lying," Gingrich spokesman R.C. Hammond told NBC News on Saturday while the former speaker was campaigning in Florida.

Gingrich is proposing that longtime illegal residents leave the country and apply for citizenship. He told reporters Saturday he doesn't recall the 2004 letter.

“I have a deep history of supporting efforts to solve the problem of illegal immigration, going back to 1986,” Gingrich told reporters following a book-signing event of his own, citing legislation passed during the Reagan administration.

Despite her attacks, Bachmann spent part of Saturday on the defensive, knocking down comparisons – first noted in Politico and on the conservative website Townhall  –  between Gingrich’s outlook on immigration and remarks she made at the Sept. 7 MSNBC-Politico debate.

At that debate, Bachmann was asked how she would handle the more than 11 million people living in the United States without documentation.  "It depends upon where they live, how long they have been here, if they have a criminal record," Bachmann said.

Asked Saturday how those remarks diverge from Gingrich's position, Bachmann insisted she was speaking about determining which illegal immigrants should be forced to leave the country first. "It is 180 degrees different from where the speaker stands. Because what I'm talking about is order of deportation," Bachmann said.

The book tour Saturday took Bachmann from Davenport, to a Barnes & Noble store in Cedar Rapids, and to a Christian store in West Des Moines.

Bachmann drew about 150 people to each of her second and third stops. But her Davenport visit drew only about a dozen people and will be rescheduled, according to her campaign, which blamed the low turnout on a planning error by the book’s publisher, a conservative imprint of Penguin Books.

Bachmann’s 80-year-old mother joined her at the Cedar Rapids event, beaming as her daughter signed books. Sunday, Bachmann continues her book tour, making stops through northwest Iowa.

NBC's Alex Moe contributed to this report.

AP Photo/Paul Sancya

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich speaks during the Republican Presidential Debate in Auburn Hills, Mich., Wednesday.

DES MOINES, Iowa -- Newt Gingrich found his past work with Freddie Mac under scrutiny during last night's presidential debate, where the former House Speaker denied ever having lobbied for the mortgage giant.

CNBC debate moderator John Harwood pressed Gingrich as to why his firm received $300,000 from Freddie Mac in 2006 -- two years before the mortgage finance company was forced into government conservatorship under the weight of subprime loans. The question was maybe the toughest Gingrich has received this campaign cycle.

But Gingrich said he was only offering advice in his capacity as a historian, and he denied lobbying against pressure from the Bush administration and Republicans in Congress for Freddie Mac to scale back its backstopping of mortgages.

"I offered them advice on precisely what they didn't do," Gingrich responded. "I have never done any lobbying, every contract that was written during the period when I was out of the office specifically said I would do no lobbying, and I offered advice. And my advice as a historian...I said to them at the time: This is a bubble. This is insane. This is impossible.'

Today, the Gingrich campaign went a step further by issuing a written statement about the former Speaker's work for Freddie Mac.

"The Gingrich Group was hired to offer strategic advice to Freddie Mac on a number of issues," the statement says.

During numerous meetings between the Speaker and Freddie Mac, the statement also notes, "Gingrich advised that a business model that involved lending money to people with bad credit and no money down was unsustainable and a bubble, and that it was dangerous to buy securities made up of these mortgages."

But in 2008, the Associated Press reported Freddie Mac paid $11.7M to 52 outside lobbyists and consultants in 2006, including "power brokers" like Gingrich.

"Gingrich talked and wrote about what he saw as the benefits of the Freddie Mac business model," the AP reported as Freddie Mac was pushing back against the Bush Administration's worry the business was going to go under.

But the campaign doubled down today in its statement: "Speaker Gingrich did no lobbying of any kind, nor did his firm. This was expressly written into the Gingrich Group contracts."

THE WOODLANDS, Texas -- A combative Herman Cain defied his staff and commented on the sexual harassment allegations that have been dogging his candidacy for nearly a week, telling media that "everything had been answered."

After a generally cordial and policy-filled debate between Cain and fellow Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich, the former businessman took questions from reporters during a press conference in which event organizers told reporters the focus needed to be entitlement spending.

"Don't even go there," Cain told a reporter who began asking about the harassment allegations. Cain then asked his chief of staff, Mark Block, to deliver the reporter a copy of the "journalistic code of ethics."

But the exchange spurred more questions for Cain on whether he would comment on reports that two of his employees received money after complaining he had sexually harassed them while head of the National Restaurant Association.

"Are you not going to answer questions about this ever again?" a reporter asked Cain.

With a grin he said, "You got it," and began to leave the room to a barrage of shouted questions.

But before making it to the door, he stopped and said, "I was going to do something that my staff told me not to do and try to respond, OK?"

As he began talking, Cain staffers told him he needed to leave – but Cain sat back down.

"We are getting back on message, end of story. Back on message. Read all of the other accounts, read all the accounts, where everything has been answered in a story. We’re getting back on message," he said.

Before tonight’s debate, Texas Patriots PAC, who organized the event, made clear the focus would be on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.　 Questions about the allegations were off limits, but event organizers declined to say who made that decision.

Cane came to Texas for the one-on-one debate with Gingrich, a former speaker of the House, moderated by Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa. The 500 people who paid $200 to attend the event saw two candidates largely in agreement on the need to reform entitlement programs and cut Washington spending.

The event came one day after an attorney for one Cain’s accusers spoke publicly and said his client filed the complaint "in good faith" but wishes to remain private and doesn't want to tell her side of the story.

The only hint of the recent controversy surrounding Cain’s candidacy came at the end of the debate, when Gingrich asked if anything surprised the former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza about running for president.

"There are too many people in the media who are downright dishonest," he said to applause.

Still, after the debate, Cain said, "I've had a great week."

His campaign has raised more than $1.6 million in the past seven days, and a Washington Post-ABC News poll showed him trailing leader Mitt Romney by just a point in the race for GOP presidential nomination.

DES MOINES, IA -- The two current Iowa front-runners were conspicuously absent, but five other GOP presidential candidates were on hand to promote their conservative bona fides to about a thousand Iowa Republicans Friday night in Des Moines.
 
With Mitt Romney and Herman Cain giving the state Republican Party's annual Ronald Reagan Dinner a pass, the remaining candidates refrained from taking shots at each other, focusing their fire squarely on President Barack Obama.
 
“Sixty days. Sixty days from right now we start the process of choosing Barack Obama’s Republican successor, and it starts here in Iowa," state GOP Chairman Matt Strawn told attendees just before the candidates spoke.
 
For the third Iowa candidate confab in a row, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich won one of the strongest responses from the conservative audience. (He was equally well received at the National Association of Manufacturers Forum this week and at an Iowa Faith and Freedom forum two weeks ago.)
 
Gingrich spent much of his speech praising the four other rivals with whom he shared the stage. "This is a great group. There are a couple I wish were here tonight. I would have said nice things about them. But we'll skip over that,” he said. “I am here with very fine competitors, but no opponents. We only have one opponent, that's Barack Obama.”
 
Gingrich also brought up his idea of Lincoln-Douglas style debates, promising he will hold President Obama to them if he is the nominee.
 
“If I end up as the nominee, in my acceptance speech if the president has not yet agreed, I will announce that from that day forward for the rest of the campaign, the White House will be my scheduler,” Gingrich told the crowd to cheers. “Wherever the president appears, I will appear four hours later.”

Texas Gov. Rick Perry won laughs for joking that the Republican field is "involved in a project called Operation Occupy the White House," going on to describe his anti-Washington credentials.
 
In a speech heavily themed around having the "courage" to address tough issues like spending cuts and entitlement reform, Perry declared that "the future of America is too important to be left to the Washington politicians."
 
He promised to freeze salaries for members of Congress and non-military federal employees, and he criticized the ongoing congressional "Super Committee", addressing competitor Newt Gingrich directly by asking "we've had 20 different committees over 30 years?" to address the debt.
 
"It's easier to people to put studies together than it is to have the courage to stand up say here's what needs to be done and do what needs to be done," Perry said in an energetic speech that received just polite applause from the crowd.
 
Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum was quick to tout his recent achievement in the Hawkeye State.
 
“I am proud to announce that I did a Grassley –- I have been to all 99 counties in the State of Iowa,” Santorum said as he started, referring to Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley. “I have had a wonderful experience.”
 
Later, Santorum, who is still trailing in the polls despite his constant presence in Iowa, talked about the Faith, Family, & Freedom Tour he launched today.
 
“Everybody else has put up an economic plan; I’ve put up an economic plan. But no one has put up a plan to strengthen the American family, to make sure we have strong marriages in our country, to defend the institutions of marriages,” he said. “I did."
 
Perry, Santorum, and Ron Paul worked the crowd before the event started, posing for photos and taking questions from some famously inquisitive Iowa voters, while Michele Bachmann and Gingrich lingered in the VIP room until the dinner began.
 
During her address, Bachmann sounded themes familiar to Iowans who visited her high-energy stump events of July and August, during the run-up to her win at the Ames Straw Poll.
 
Reprising her message from this summer’s fight over the debt ceiling, Bachmann also voiced concerns about events in Europe, where Greece at one point this week deferred a bailout package from the European Union, setting off panic in world markets.
 
“Maybe they just didn’t want to cut back on their spending,” Bachmann said. “The rest of the world looked at Greece and said, ‘Are you out of your mind? Take the deal or you go down the drain.’”
 
Reiterating a message she introduced during an economic policy address earlier this week, Bachmann used Greece’s story as a warning.
 
“What we need to do right now in the United States is take a real good look in the mirror,” she said.
 
Texas Rep. Paul advocated for the elimination of the income tax, saying that the idea of liberty means that Americans should be able to keep what they make.
 
“Shouldn’t it also follow that we have a right to the fruits of our labor? Which implies that there should be no income tax!"
 
Paul offered a typically passionate pitch to slash spending, end wars aboard, and eliminate numerous federal agencies -- including the Education Department.

The Gingrich campaign told NBC News that yesterday was the campaign's best fundraising day thus far in the campaign.

The campaign raised $113,000 yesterday, spokesman R.C. Hammond said.

"Every day, we inch a little further ahead," he said. "Always progress, always towards our goal."

Earlier this month, the campaign announced it raised more in October than it did in all of the third quarter.

The Herman Cain campaign also told NBC News it had its best online fundraising day yesterday.

AIKEN, S.C. -– Newt Gingrich targeted his GOP rivals (saying he has deeper knowledge of history than them) and President Obama, insinuating the president did not study American history.

“One of the things that makes me different from my friends,” Gingrich said of his Republican opponents for the nomination, “is I actually studied history. And unlike Obama, who’s clearly a very, very bright person, who graduated from Columbia and graduated from Harvard, I actually studied American history.”

That was greeted with laughs from the approximately 200 members of the Aiken Republican Club.

Obama’s college education has been the subject of conspiracy theories, claiming the president’s studies were concentrated in Marxism, which has led some prominent Republicans, including Donald Trump and Rick Perry, to pick up on the meme and call for the president to release his college transcripts.

Less than 20 minutes after Gingrich questioned the president’s grasp of American history, he invoked Obama’s Ivy League education as he challenged him to a series of Lincoln-Douglas style debates.

“I just think something about that Harvard law school, that Columbia undergraduate, the elegance of the greatest orator of his generation,” Gingrich goaded, “he will just kind of feel compelled to prove he is unafraid,” to participate in a debate.

Gingrich is already planning to take on his primary opponent Herman Cain in such a debate in November, sponsored by the Texas Tea Party Patriots, which is charging between $200 and $1,000 per ticket.

And, of course, while President Obama is the presumptive presidential nominee for his party, Gingrich trails far behind in most polls.

Gingrich also played to the audience on judges, touting the strength and the ability of the executive branch, to “reshape the courts.” If necessary, it could abolish individual courts, Gingrich claimed, based on precedent set by Thomas Jefferson’s Judiciary Act of 1802.

What a presidential candidate will do about judges and justices is a key litmus test for conservative, especially very conservative voters in South Carolina, particularly on issues of abortion and business regulation.

During his speech, Gingrich also contrasted his ideas with those of his opponents, although he didn’t mention any of them by name.  He cited his experience as Speaker of the House of Representatives when explaining why his plan to balance the budget was better than those of his opponents.

“I have to confess, unlike some of my colleagues,” Gingrich said, “I don't have any consultants on balancing the budget. And I don’t have any talking points. I just have a decade of experience actually doing it.”

Gingrich saw a mass exodus of consultants and aides back in June and is $1.2 million in debt.

Gingrich also mentioned he will be making speeches soon in Iowa and South Carolina that will unveil his plan for brain-science research, an issue he frequently mentions on the trail. Because the plan will involve investment in research and development, Gingrich said it will “initially confuse many conservative intellectuals, because one of the things you can’t get across in Washington is the concept of investment. Everything is a cost.”

Ali-Frazier. Tyson-Holyfied. Cain-Gingrich.

Forget Lincoln-Douglass. At these prices, you’d expect someone to at least throw a punch.

If you want to see Herman Cain debate Newt Gingrich Nov. 5^th at The Woodlands Resort north of Houston, without the filter of the “lamestream media” and about the "most pressing issues facing America today," all you’ll have to fork over is $200 -- and that’s for the cheap seats.

That and a $5.99 processing fee gets you “some good ole apple pie” and a chance to “sit and enjoy the debate.”

For a cool $500, you get a “Patron Ticket - prime seating and Nite Cap party after the Debate. 8:30pm til 10pm: Mingle with the candidates and enjoy some drinks and hors d'oeuvres. Seating will be based on order of receipt of reservations.”

Or you could really step it up -- to the $1,000 level, which “includes best seating in the house for the debate and attend the Nite Cap Party in the Lakeside Room at The Woodlands Resort and have a professional picture take [sic] with the candidates.”

There is a student discount. Students get in for $150, but, unfortunately, that promo's no longer available. That sales period has “ended.”

So where’s all this money going?

To the Texas Tea Party Patriots PAC, which bills the event as:

The Lincoln-Douglas Debate was then...
The Cain-Gingrich Debate is NOW!!!

It also issues this disclaimer:

“Federal law requires us to use our best efforts to collect and report the name, mailing address, occupation and name of employer of individuals whose total contributions exceed $200 in an election cycle.”

So, if you go, it's also a federal political contribution.

By the way, at those prices, a cash bar is available. But, hey, don't worry, the group says there will be "Plenty of All American Apple Pie, Coffee and of course Tea!"

No word if this main event will also be available on Pay-Per-View.

(Hat tip: Wall Street Journal and The Woodlands Villager.)

MANCHESTER, N.H. -- Newt Gingrich has hired an additional three full-time paid staffers to their New Hampshire campaign team in a continued effort to expand the former Speaker of the House's national campaign strategy, which comes in the midst of rising campaign contributions announced by Gingrich yesterday, sources tell NBC News.

The staffers joined Gingrich and recently hired New Hampshire State Director Andrew Hemingway yesterday when Gingrich filed for the New Hampshire primary. Their state headquarters will open next week in downtown Concord.

The campaign confirmed Alex Talcott will serve as the New Hampshire Coalitions Director. He recently worked on the Rep. Thaddeus McCotter campaign and is a public-relations principal at Vaura Consulting, LLC. He is a lawyer and teaches economics at Newbury College.

As reported yesterday, Matt LeDuc, who was the New Hampshire Director of Operations for Michele Bachmann, will serve as Gingrich's director of communications in the Granite State.

Pam Smith will be Gingrich's New Hampshire volunteer coordinator. Previously, she was a coordinator for NH 912 (a Tea Party-affiliated group) and worked on Congressman Frank Guinta's campaign.

Gingrich plans to open two more offices in New Hampshire in the near future and eventually expand into five across the state ahead of what is likely to be a January primary. The campaign says it will probably hire more staffers in the coming weeks. Major staff announcements are expected in Iowa soon as well.

By NBC's Jo Ling Kent and Alex Moe

CONCORD, NH and DES MOINES, Iowa-- While filing papers for the New Hampshire primary Tuesday, Newt Gingrich announced his campaign fundraising totals this month alone have surpassed the amount raised in the entire third quarter.

"As of today, [we] raised more money in October than we raised in the entire last quarter.  And we have more donors as of 2 days ago than we've had all the last quarter," Gingrich said.

Campaign spokesman R.C. Hammond confirmed to NBC News that Gingrich "surpassed the $800,000 mark today." According to the campaign, they have received 11,200 donations this month at an average of $75. Three out of four donors are first-time contributors.

This comes after Herman Cain said he'd been raising $1 million a week since Oct. 1. Gingrich's team gave no indication of how much exactly they've raised, just that it was more than the $808,000 it took in from July to September.

"There was a long stretch where we didn't have much resources and a lot of people thought we were dead," Gingrich told reporters.

Gingrich - who recently expanded his staff and hired a New Hampshire state director, Andrew Hemingway - also hired a former Michele Bachmann staffer. Matt LeDuc recently left the Bachmann campaign in the Granite State during the staff exodus this week, Hemingway confirmed to NBC News today.

The former House Speaker called this an "upward swing that gives us the resources to be more competitive" across the country. The Gingrich campaign's Iowa headquarters will be officially opening in the coming weeks.

"If we continue to improve at this pace, I think we'll be able to run a full-blown campaign and be totally competitive in terms of advertising and other things by the time we get to early January," Gingrich said.

“Money translates into ground game and ground game is important in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina,” Hammond said. The addition of paid Iowa staffers is forthcoming.

Gingrich also declared his commitment to competing in the New Hampshire primary, arguing that front-runner Mitt Romney will face a challenge in the state's contest despite the former Massachusetts governor's strong poll numbers that put him in a double-digit lead in the state.

"I do not believe that Governor Romney has a lock on this state," Gingrich said. "The governor has a strong lead here, but the campaign has only begun in terms of ideas and issues and drawing contrast." 

Gingrich is polling nationally at 8 percent, according to a recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.

When asked why he felt momentum in his campaign, Gingrich credited his recent debate performances and criticized his fellow candidates.

"I do think that bickering is destructive for the Republican Party," he said of the debates. "I think that it diminishes the respect people have for the process..I think it's bad for the party."