December 21, 2011 07:53 PM UTC

Ron Paul's Turn To "Surge?"

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• by: Colorado Pols

Noting what the Washington Post reports today:

In a muddled field, Paul could win the Iowa caucuses. While other candidates have been hesitant to commit to the state or have had trouble sustaining their initial bursts of support, Paul has been methodically building an organization and a growing corps of followers.

Over the past week, he has spent more than $600,000 on attack ads that are cutting into support for a fellow front-runner, former House speaker Newt Gingrich (Ga.). And Paul has built an organization that will allow him to remain in the race well beyond the early-voting states and amass convention delegates.

Perhaps most fearsome to Republican leaders is Paul’s refusal to rule out a third-party presidential bid that would steal votes from the Republican nominee and make President Obama’s path to reelection considerably easier…

Here in Colorado, we’ve heard that our local GOP brass is increasingly worried about a Ron Paul insurgency “ruining” the caucuses, and denying frontrunner Mitt Romney a much-needed show of support in our state. Romney won the Colorado caucuses in 2008 and has by far the best field organization on the ground, but Paul is working hard on organizing his key constituencies–and is really the only other GOP presidential candidate organizing here.

Bottom line: Paul can’t win, but in this messy, weak field, he could do some real damage.