White House hopeful Newt Gingrich, the former US House speaker whose campaign to win the Republican nomination appeared all but over just weeks ago, has surged toward the front of the pack.
His campaign's revival follows the rise and fall of leading rivals, most recently former Godfather's Pizza chief executive Herman Cain who is battling a sexual harassment scandal and stumbled badly Monday in responding to a question on Libya.
The Republican Party has struggled to find the right alternative to frontrunner Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor seen by many as the most formidable challenger to President Barack Obama in the November 2012 election but who has been unable to gain support of the party's conservative base.
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While congresswoman Michele Bachmann and Texas Governor Rick Perry, two conservative party rivals, shot to the top of the heap as soon as they entered the race only to see their campaigns fizzle, Gingrich has trended in the opposite direction.
His detailed ideas to overcome such US hurdles as budget deficits coupled with his recent string of strong debate performances has helped reignite the campaign, political operatives said.
Gingrich took the lead in a Public Policy Polling survey released Monday with 28 percent support, compared with 25 percent for Cain and 18 for Romney.
In a CNN poll also released Monday, Gingrich was just two points behind Romney, who was favored by 24 percent of respondents. But the margin of error of 4.5 percentage points, essentially puts the pair in a dead heat.
Cain's support among respondents dropped to 14 percent.
Just weeks ago Gingrich was in single digits.
"He definitely is rising in polls, there's no doubt," said Chuck Laudner, a former Republican leader in Iowa, the Midwestern state that on January 3 will hold the country's first presidential nominating event.
"Everywhere I go he's on the short list."
Gingrich, 68, is best known for helping his party defeat the Democrats in 1994 and take control of the US House of Representatives for the first time in 40 years.
His time as the third highest-ranking US elected official also led to ethics sanctions against him and a reputation for sparking polarizing political rhetoric.
Gingrich left Congress in 1998 after his party's unsuccessful reelection efforts and a failed attempt to remove then-president Bill Clinton from office after he lied about an affair with an intern.
Gingrich launched his White House campaign earlier this year but quickly made multiple gaffes, including what he acknowledges were poor campaign decisions such as spending money on private planes to shuttle him and wife Callista to campaign events.
Eighteen staffers, consultants and advisers resigned in June, some speaking publicly about Gingrich's lackadaisical approach to fundraising and campaigning.
The campaign posted a $1.2 million debt last month. But after his recent upswing in the polls, Gingrich this week described his fundraising as "amazing," noting that he has more than 1,000 new contributors each day.
The campaign is now hiring staff and opening new offices in early voting states.
In Iowa, where he says he will campaign for roughly 30 days between now and the state's January 3 caucuses, Gingrich was introduced this week as "the leading candidate" in a standing room-only event.
"That's the first time anybody, anywhere has introduced me as the leading candidate," Gingrich said as the crowd chuckled.
But Gingrich faces opposition from within the Republican ranks because of a past rife with controversy.
A group known as "Iowans for Christian Leaders in Government" began circulating a flier this week with the headline "Is NOTHING Sacred to Newt?" that noted his previous infidelity.
John Meyer, a Republican leader in Iowa who introduced Gingrich at one of this week's campaign events, said he hopes the candidate's past doesn't bring him down.
"At least to me he appears to be a guy who is honest about his mistakes and people are going to have to make up their mind about whether that's important to them or not," Meyer said.
Timothy Hagle, an associate professor of political science at the University of Iowa, said Gingrich's recent campaign success has staying power if he can organize well and deflate moves by rivals to resurrect problems in his past.
"It seems like this may be Newt's time," Hagle said.
