Newt Gingrich's meteoric rise in the race for the Republican presidential nomination has come back to earth, as a new poll released Sunday pits Ron Paul as the expected winner of the upcoming Iowa caucus. The Public Policy Polling data bumped Mr Gingrich down to third place, with Mr Paul winning the majority with 23 per cent, followed closely by former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney with 20 per cent.
Mr Gingrich, who last week was touting the fact that he was expected to win the vital first primary, now only has 14 per cent of Republican voters, according to the PPP poll.
'Newt Gingrich's campaign is rapidly imploding and Gingrich has now seen a big drop in his Iowa standing two weeks in a row,' read the statement attached to the poll.
Attack ads and highly-charged endorsements have hurt Mr Gingrich in the past few pivotal days.
'Negative ads over the last few weeks have really chipped away at Gingrich's image as being a strong conservative- now only 36% of voters believe that he has 'strong principles,' while 43% think he does not,' the PPP report said.
Mr Romney won the coveted endorsement of The Des Moines Register, Iowa's biggest newspaper, while Mr Gingrich got support from the editorial board of New Hampshire's Union Leader.
The two papers are hot tickets in this race, as Iowa's primary is on January 3 and New Hampshire's follows shortly after on January 10.
Mr Gingrich attempted to brush past the speculation about the Des Moines endorsement by slamming the paper's credentials.
I'm actually delighted because the Manchester Union Leader, which is a reliably conservative newspaper, endorsed me,' Mr Gingrich said Sunday on CBS' Face the Nation.
'The Des Moines Register, which is a solidly liberal newspaper, did not endorse me. I think that indicates who the conservative in this race is,' he continued.
Today's polling results come from the PPP, an though the firm is democratically-affiliated, their results are being echoed elsewhere.
The New York Times put Mr Paul as the winner with 24 per cent and Mr Romney at 21 per cent.
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