Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich will begin next week to seek financial commitments from donors for a presidential-nomination bid, the Georgia Republican told The Washington Times yesterday.

If he can get pledges for $30 million over the next three weeks, he will join the Republican presidential-nomination race — a prospect he had been downplaying until yesterday.

The Washington Times

I watched an interview on Fox News Sunday yesterday morning between Chris Wallace and Newt Gingrich. Gingrich said that if he can get pledges of at least $30 million he will join the presidential race. The main reason for his goal is to make sure he is financially competitive, namely against Mitt Romney, who if he needed to could basically write a check to finance his campaign.

“If the reports back that, in fact, we think the resources are there for a real race — remember, Governor Romney has been very successful legitimately as a businessman. He can write a $100 million check.

I mean, there’s no point in getting into a fight with a guy who can drown you unless you at least have enough resources for a vote.

And so if we have enough resources, then close to that we’ll face a very big decision in late October. If there aren’t enough resources, I’m not for doing unrealistic things.”

Fox News