Newt Gingrich has urged his rivals for the Republican presidential nomination in the US to refrain from attacks on him as he returned to Iowa amid signs his surge in the polls is waning.
"What the campaign should really be about is who has the best ideas, who has the best solutions," he told about supporters in the garage of a security company in Davenport, Iowa.
"It's very disappointing," he said, to see his fellow Republicans putting "out so much negative junk."
Campaigning in Hiawatha, Mr Gingrich called on his competitor Mitt Romney to stop airing an attack ad sponsored by a group supporting his campaign. "If you see Romney, ask him to take it off the air," he told voters gathered in the warehouse of an apparel manufacturer.
The pro-Romney group, Restore Our Future, has spent $550,000 on ads in Iowa and Florida that attack Mr Gingrich as a candidate with "a ton of baggage."
Mr Gingrich is being targeted by millions of dollars of negative ads. The campaign has eroded support for the former House speaker with two weeks to go before the first votes in the nomination fight are cast in Iowa.
Mr Gingrich said he planned to make more than 40 stops in Iowa before its January 3rd caucuses. He said he would use the events and daily telephone conferences with Iowa voters to answer "any question" that comes up based on criticisms made by his rivals.
"I really wish they had the courage to be positive," he said of his opponents. "I have faith in the people of Iowa that, over a two-week period, we will sort out who is being honest and who isn't."
Attacks by Republican opponents against Mr Gingrich, which grew following his rise in polls, show signs of taking their toll. A national poll released yesterday by CNN showed a tie between Mr Gingrich and Mr Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, with each getting the backing of 28 per cent of Republican voters. In CNN's November poll, Mr Gingrich led Mr Romney 24 per cent to 20 per cent. Mr Gingrich's campaign spent an estimated $130,500 on television advertisements - all in Iowa - through December 18th, according to data compiled by CMAG/Kantar Media, a New York-based company that tracks political spending.
Texas Governor Rick Perry, who is airing an ad attacking Mr Gingrich and Mr Romney on health-care issues, and an independent committee supporting his candidacy have spent $2.69 million on television ads.
US representative Ron Paul of Texas has spent $1.1 million on television ads, including about $36,000 on an ad in Iowa that accuses Mr Gingrich of "serial hypocrisy."
Asked by reporters about his drop in polls, Mr Gingrich pointed to the spending.
"Watch TV here for two days," he said. "You've had all sorts of people and all sorts of these super PACs (Political Action Committees) who have been consistently running negative ads. Well, you get enough negative ads before you start answering them, your numbers go down for a while." His strategy of remaining positive will pay off at the Iowa caucuses, Mr Gingrich said.
"They're in effect doing Barack Obama's work," he said. "I think the average Republican is going to be very unhappy with candidates whose entire campaign is negative."
Bloomberg