PALO ALTO – Hopscotching throughout the state this week, Newt Gingrich insisted first that he is staying in the Republican presidential race and second that he may soon take the lead.

But if Gingrich is truly resurgent, the extent of his stay here is puzzling.

While front-runners Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum both dipped into donor-rich California in recent days to raise money, they are spending most of their time elsewhere, focused on upcoming primaries in other states.

The former House speaker instead has lingered in the Golden State for four days. He toured an agricultural exposition in Tulare County, where he opined about such California-centric topics as high-speed rail. He hobnobbed privately with former Secretaries of State Condoleezza Rice and George Shultz at a Stanford think tank. He fed animals at the San Diego Zoo.

"It would seem like if he wants to be in for the long haul, he should get his butt to Michigan," said Rob Stutzman, a Republican strategist in Sacramento.

Low on money, Gingrich's campaign characterized the week as a fundraising swing necessary to compete on Super Tuesday, when 10 states hold primaries or caucuses next month. He is scheduled to leave California today but return next week, just before primary elections in Michigan and Arizona on Feb. 28.

It is possible Gingrich appreciates the distance. Aides have suggested giving Santorum a clear shot at Romney in Michigan could help make more room for Gingrich by getting Romney out of the race.

Gingrich also said earlier this week that he does less well when he focuses on other candidates.

"I do dramatically better when I focus on the nation's problems and I focus on the nation's solutions," Gingrich said.

He reiterated that sentiment Wednesday, in a series of private meetings at the Hoover Institution on the Stanford University campus, according to people who attended the event. There, he met with experts in such subjects as constitutional issues and international relations.

As he left, Gingrich said, "we're on the way to Michigan and Arizona, but we're out here doing fundraising, and we scheduled this a couple months ago." He added: "It's been very successful so far."

Still, Gingrich's itinerary was puzzling to veterans of California politics.

"This is sort of part of my Valentine's Day," Gingrich told reporters after feeding an elephant at the San Diego Zoo.

It was a photo opportunity – as was his feeding in the same visit of a panda – but the point was unclear.

"The coverage last night was Santorum, Romney and Gingrich feeding a panda," said Jeff Randle, a Republican strategist who is volunteering for Romney.

Randle said it "makes no sense to me" that Gingrich is spending so much time here, "unless he thinks California is a Super Tuesday state."

It is not. California's primary is among the latest, in June.

For a well-organized, well-financed candidate like Romney, trips to California are typically quick. The former Massachusetts governor was in Southern California earlier this week. Santorum, the former Pennsylvania senator, surprised a crowd when he appeared at a school fundraiser over the weekend in Indian Wells, the Desert Sun reported.

For Gingrich, said Jon Fleischman, a conservative blogger and former executive director of the California Republican Party, "it's an unfortunate reality … where his need to fund his campaign is pulling him out of battleground states at a time when he would otherwise not choose to do so."

Still, Gingrich is upbeat. Despite fading since winning in South Carolina last month, Gingrich told reporters in San Diego, "I suspect in another two or three weeks I'll be ahead again."

In Southern California, Gingrich called the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals – which recently ruled California's prohibition of gay marriage unconstitutional – "a consistently bigoted, anti-religious court," according to the Los Angeles Times. The same day, he met with Latino supporters who like his proposal to let longtime illegal immigrants remain in the country.

In Tulare County, he said of California's nearly $100 billion high-speed rail project: "I think Californians better make sure that it's affordable, and it's not just one more Sacramento boondoggle."

"I am for high-speed trains that are economically rational," he said, "but I am against high-speed trains that become, you know, basically just a large taxpayer subsidy so that a handful of unionized workers have a brief period of feeling good."

Gingrich, who is scheduled to speak at the California Republican Party's spring convention in Burlingame next week, suggested he could compete against President Barack Obama in November, even in California.

"We want to put California in play this fall so we can compete for electoral delegates" he said, according to the North County Times and U-T San Diego.

California is so overwhelmingly Democratic that no Republican candidate is likely to compete seriously against Obama here. Not since George H.W. Bush won California in 1988 has a Republican carried the state.

Whether Gingrich will still be an active candidate when California holds its Republican primary is unclear. But Bill Whalen, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution and former speechwriter for ex-Gov. Pete Wilson, suggested taking Gingrich at his word.

"Newt is one of a handful of very quizzical people in California politics, like Jerry Brown, where you're challenged to assume what's on his mind," Whalen said. "But let's just assume that he's in it until the end."

Gingrich's standing, he said, should become clearer after the primary election in Arizona, a conservative state with a substantial tea party presence. "Let's see how he does vis-à-vis Santorum in that state," Whalen said.

While Gingrich was nearing the end of his trip, Obama was beginning a fundraising swing in California. He was scheduled Wednesday to speak at a fundraiser in Los Angeles, followed by a luncheon today in Corona Del Mar.

The president is expected to attend fundraisers in San Francisco today, including speaking to about 2,500 people at the Nob Hill Masonic Center, at an event featuring music by Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell.

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