Gingrich's Lawyer Asks PAC to Stop Recruiting Speaker for Senate

A new PAC that was formed to encourage Newt Gingrich to run for the Senate in Virginia has been asked to end its efforts by an attorney for the former GOP House Speaker.

“As both Speaker Gingrich and Gingrich Productions have made very clear, Speaker Gingrich is a new host of CNN’s Crossfire," Stefan Passantino, an attorney for the McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP firm wrote the Draft Newt PAC last week, Politico reports. "He is not running for United States Senate and will not run for Senate at any time in the future."

“We hereby demand that you cease and desist from the unauthorized use of Speaker Gingrich’s name or likeness and that you further cease and desist from any activity implying or insinuating that your group is in any way authorized by, or affiliated with, Speaker Gingrich or his organizations,” Passantino wrote.

The Draft Newt PAC wanted Gingrich, 70, who represented Georgia in the House of Representatives from 1979 to 1999, to challenge Democrat Sen. Mark Warner next year.

Warner remains popular in the commonwealth and has not drawn strong opposition.

Gingrich, who served as speaker from 1995 to 1999, has long resided in McLean, Va., Politico reports.

The PAC was formed by Andrew Hemingway, who served Gingrich's 2012 presidential campaign as New Hampshire state director and national digital fundraising director.

The group has received Passantino’s letter, Dan Backer, an attorney who is serving as the group's treasurer, told Politico.

Though the PAC had forwarded the 8,400 signatures it had obtained, Backer told Politico that it had now garnered more than 10,000 signatures in support of a Gingrich candidacy.

"We want a credible challenger to Mark Warner, and no one could do what Newt could do to fight — and win," Hemingway said in a statement last week. "U.S. Senator Newt Gingrich would be an immediate game-changer, giving conservatives another voice that would take the fight to the Obama administration."