NEWT GINGRICH will give the current field until the end of October to shape up. Apparently extending his personal deadline by a few weeks, he says he will decide at that time whether to run for President.

The Republican former House speaker told the Granite Status in a telephone interview yesterday his "personal bias is to focus on my role as a citizen teacher," but if the current ideas "vacuum" continues, he will run.

While he had been talking about deciding shortly after his American Solutions' organization's upcoming "Solutions Day," he's now talking about a late October timeline.

He said that at the moment, "There is a vacuum in both parties not in the political sense of personalities, but in the larger sense of an understanding of the challenges America faces and what are they going to do about it.

"With all these United States senators running," Gingrich said, "what are they actually doing to change things? What are they doing to control the border," to ensure that English is "the official language of the government," to improve national security and on other "fundamental" issues?

Gingrich has said that his decision also will be based on whether he has $30 million in committed campaign contributions.

For the moment, Gingrich is focused the series of workshops being planned throughout the country for Sept. 29 by the non-partisan, non-profit organization he chairs aimed at breaking gridlock at all levels of government. Kicking off Solutions Day on Sept. 27, Gingrich -- in a speech to be broadcast on the Web from Atlanta -- will outline what he called yesterday "a very bold new generation of solutions. I really see this as the beginning of a process. Not a climax, but a launch."

Lien on him

We reported in July that Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Steve Marchand was taking the unusual step of paying himself with his own campaign funds for "consulting" services to his own campaign. Between April 1 and June 30, the Marchand campaign paid candidate Marchand $11,000 for "consulting" and $2,209 for "staff."

Marchand said the practice had been checked with the Federal Election Commission. He called the ability to collect payment a major factor in his decision to become a full-time, serious candidate because he, like many who run or want to run for office, is not independently wealthy.

Turns out Marchand was wrong. FEC campaign finance analyst Lauren Lien told his campaign treasurer, Justin Nadeau, in a letter that federal law prohibits "personal use of campaign funds by the candidate" prior to the state filing deadline -- in New Hampshire's case, June 13, 2008.

Marchand says his campaign was steered wrong by the "FEC help line," but he has no worries. "We are being very pro-active in ensuring that we remain in compliance with the FEC. They've been great -- very understanding and informative."

He said the FEC is allowing him to keep the money temporarily and mark it down as a "debt to the campaign that will be repaid."

He said that not being able to pay himself while campaigning full time until next June won't end his campaign.

"It certainly makes the effort more difficult and more challenging on a personal level, but obviously we are deeply committed to the cause and the effort," he said. "So, we'll find a way."

It still remains to be seen what Marchand and fellow candidates Katrina Swett and Jay Buckey will do if former Gov. Jeanne Shaheen enters the race. We should find out sometime in the next few weeks.

Big pickup for Richardson

Former Manchester Mayor Bob Baines is signing on with Democratic presidential candidate Bill Richardson. Baines, who served from 2000 to 2006, will become a Richardson state co-chair.

Baines, who still has tons of friends in the city, is currently interim president of Chester College of New England. He says Richardson is the only candidate "who can bring both change and experience to the White House."

A lifelong educator, Baines is excited about Richardson's commitment to education.

In the mail

Democratic checks giving to charities from fugitive-from-justice Norman Hsu's donations are in the mail -- or almost in the mail -- spokesmen say.

Hillary Clinton's campaign has said it will return about $850,000 to about 260 donors recruited or tapped by Hsu.

He also gave $5,000 to the New Hampshire Democratic Party, $5,000 to the state Senate Democratic Caucus PAC and $2,000 to Gov. John Lynch's PAC, the Lynch Committee. Hsu's former house mate, Winkle Paw, also gave Lynch's PAC $2,000.

Lynch Committee spokesman Lisa Bianco said yesterday Lynch asked two weeks ago that the Hsu contribution be given to the New Hampshire Disaster Relief fund.

"The committee's accountant only comes in periodically," she wrote us in an e-mail, "and we expect a contribution check" to that fund (covering the 2006 contributions from Hsu and Paw) "will be issued by the end of this week."

State party chair Ray Buckley, who last year headed the Senate Democratic PAC, said, "I have a check on my desk" for $5,000 payable to the New Hampshire Food Bank from the Senate PAC.

He said party officials are discussing how to divide up the $5,000 given to the party and "what charities to give it to."

Buckley then took a poke at state GOP Chair Fergus Cullen, who uncovered the local Hsu contributions. He asked if Cullen has decided yet whether he will give to charities $10,000 in contributions to the party made just prior to the 2002 election by Indian tribes then represented by former lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Democrats wondered if the contributions funded the illegal '02 phone-jamming operation. When the contributions were made public in the fall of 2005, then-state GOP chair Warren Henderson said the contributions had long ago been spent and would not be returned.

Cullen said yesterday it all happened so long ago, "I don't even know the facts of the situation. I don't know enough about it to make an intelligent comment."

No flipper

Coos County Sheriff Gerry Marcou says he isn't switching allegiances. He said he decided last Friday to endorse Mitt Romney for President, and never endorsed John McCain.

Marcou said he didn't know that McCain's camp has him listed on its Web site as a member of its leadership team and that the McCain campaign released his name as a backer through this column a year ago.

He said he likes and respects McCain, but "never committed" to him.

Marcou, who said he'd been "pressured" by Rudy Giuliani's campaign to endorse the former New York mayor, cited Romney's "energy and enthusiasm," and does not believe, as he says McCain does, "that we can just stay the course on the war."

McCain political director Mike Dennehy said Marcou "signed up as a 'Straight Talk America' supporter but has not been part of our organization. So I'm not surprised he has decided to endorse a candidate."

McCain returns to New Hampshire today. His "No Surrender" bus tour will bring him to veterans posts in East Rochester, Concord, Hudson and (tomorrow) Londonderry, as well as veteran Bill Grimm's home in Franklin.

McCain's campaign will help non-profit organizations collect care packages for U.S. troops overseas and asks interested Granite Staters to pack shoeboxes of useful items, such as snacks and toiletries.

Get over it

Top state Democrats aren't exactly shaking over the complaints lodged with Democratic National Chair Howard Dean by their party's congressmen from Florida and Michigan.

Sens. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., and Carl Levin, D-Mich., and 14 House members complain that the DNC has warned their states that they will lose delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Denver next year if they hold their primaries before Feb. 5. Florida's is slated for Jan. 29, and Michigan's, Jan. 15.

"To date, we have heard no criticism by the DNC of the New Hampshire decision, nor any threat to impose 'automatic' sanctions referred to by your spokesman upon New Hampshire Democrats if their delegates are selected at a primary earlier than the date provided for in the DNC rules," the group says in a letter.

New Hampshire's primary, by law, must be held at least seven days ahead of any "similar election," and while Secretary of State Bill Gardner has not yet set the date, he could not, by law, set it later than Jan. 8 -- two weeks before the date set for it by the DNC.

Where have the congressmen have been? The DNC has been criticizing New Hampshire for a couple of years now ostensibly for being too white, not poor enough, not this, or not that -- and warning that we'd better not break its rule, or else.

"New Hampshire has always taken the principled position that we're going to follow our state law even though we know we can lose our delegates under the party rules," Buckley said yesterday. "If Michigan and Florida were taking principled positions, they'd stop making a fuss about losing delegates and stop disrupting the nominating process. We decided years ago that we were willing to sacrifice our delegates if necessary."

Added former state chair Kathy Sullivan, "The country would be better off if Michigan and Florida spent more time worrying about electing a Democratic president and less time worrying about whether a few dozen party insiders from their states have floor passes at the national convention next year." She suggested they "accept that they won't have seats in Denver, and stop complaining."

Poll points

A few observations on this week's poll of New Hampshire voters by the Los Angeles Times and Bloomberg:

-- Hillary Clinton's lead, 35 to 16 to 16 over Barack Obama and John Edwards, is becoming formidable -- and expectations are getting higher every day.

-- How about Edwards being tied with Obama here? Is that for real?

-- 46 percent of state Dems say they are certain about their choices, but 47 percent say they may change their minds. It's not over yet.

-- Giuliani continues to hang around, with 23 percent to Romney's leading 28 percent.

-- McCain and Fred Thompson are in a dead heat for third at 11 and 12 percent, respectively.

-- Ron Paul is at 5 percent, in a statistical tie with Mike Huckabee. Interesting.

-- 42 percent of state GOP voters say they are certain of their choices; 50 percent say they might end up voting for somebody else. Again, it's not over yet.

Quick takes

-- The state Democratic State Committee will meet Sunday at the Grantham Town Hall and hear from University of New Hampshire Survey Center director Andy Smith. Party officials note that the date is the 32nd anniversary of the 1975 special U.S. Senate election won by John Durkin over Louis Wyman -- the most recent time a Democrat was elected to the U.S. Senate from New Hampshire.

-- With recently opened locations in Concord and West Lebanon, Chris Dodd's New Hampshire campaign now has five campaign offices. Dodd's latest endorsement comes from former state Rep. Matt Vallone, D-Epping, a member of the state Young Democrats and a member of the Democratic State Committee.

-- Giuliani will meet with fans and drivers on Sunday at the New Hampshire International Speedway prior to its "Chase for the NASCAR Nextel Cup" event.

--Conservative consultant/talk show hosts Jack Heath's "New Hampshire Today" and Gardner Goldsmith's "Against the Grain," now broadcast on WTPL 107.7 FM, will be syndicated beginning next week on three Upper Valley radio stations recently purchased by WTPL owners.

-- Although Thompson's campaign says Fred won't engage Huckabee in a Lincoln-Douglas style debate, Franklin Pierce College George Haggerty has made it known that his institution is willing to host such an debate if he changes his mind.

John DiStaso is senior political reporter of the New Hampshire Union Leader.