Gingrich Campaigns In Oklahoma

Tuesday, May 1st 2007, 6:30 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich says he is still eyeing a run for president and can't explain polls that show him ranked near the top-tier candidates for the Republican nomination although he has not formally announced.

Polls in some states show Gingrich, the speaker from 1995 to 1999, running behind former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, U.S. Senator John McCain of Arizona and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, but ahead of U.S. Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas and Fred Thompson, an actor and former U.S. senator from Tennessee.

During a stop Monday night in Oklahoma City, the 63-year-old Gingrich said the 2006 elections in which the GOP lost both houses of Congress are a sign of disappointment among Republicans.

He says his relatively high poll numbers may indicate that many people remember the 1994 Contract for America that he co-authored and his highly publicized spats with former President Bill Clinton over cutting taxes and balancing the federal budget.

Gingrich says he will not decide whether to enter the race until October.