Newt Gingrich to formally announce 2012 bid on Wednesday

After more than a decade of hints, it looks like Newt Gingrich really is going to run for president.

Rick Tyler, a spokesman for the former GOP House speaker, said in a message on Twitter that Gingrich plans to formally enter the 2012 race Wednesday.

According to his spokesman, Gingrich will announce his intentions on Facebook and Twitter, ahead of a previously scheduled appearance at a GOP convention in Georgia this Friday.

The announcement comes just over two months after Gingrich pulled a bait and switch about his 2012 intentions. In March, the former GOP lawmaker held a press conference in Georgia, where his campaign had hinted he would launch a 2012 exploratory committee.

But Gingrich instead announced "an exploratory phase" and registered an officially unofficial fund-raising committee with the Internal Revenue Service that allowed him raise cash for a 2012 effort without giving up his ties to a network of political non-profits that fund his day-to-day operations.

Tyler told The Ticket last month that Gingrich's efforts to untangle himself from his non-profit committees, including Americans Solutions, had been more complicated than expected and had prompted him to delay his official 2012 effort. But Gingrich has been actively raising cash for his White House bid since March and plans to disclose the donations he's already taken in when he converts his committee to a full-fledged campaign with the Federal Election Commission.

Last week, two separate polls found less-than-staggering support among GOP voters for Gingrich's 2012 bid. A CNN poll found Gingrich with just 10 percent support among GOP voters. Meanwhile, Gingrich registered just 5 percent support in a Quinnipiac poll.

(Photo of Gingrich and a stuffed moose in New Hampshire: Jim Cole/AP)