Report: Mitt Romney Set to Make Major Push to Win the Iowa Caucuses – 11/20/11

It appears Mitt Romney is ready to make a run at winning the Iowa Caucuses – something he has been hesitant to do up till now. Reports indicate he is ready to run a higher profile campaign there in the weeks leading up to the Caucuses on January 3, 2012. It has been unclear whether Romney would do so or not. He spent heavily in Iowa in 2008 and came in second to Mike Huckabee.

NEW YORK TIMES: The answer to one of the great lingering questions about the Republican presidential race has suddenly turned up here along Ingersoll Avenue, where Mitt Romney’s Iowa campaign headquarters is opening for business.

Mr. Romney, who has been cautiously calibrating expectations about his chances in a state full of social conservatives, is now playing to win the Iowa caucuses. Television commercials are on the way, volunteers are arriving and a stealth operation is ready to burst into view in the weeks leading up to the caucuses, the first Republican nominating contest, on Jan. 3.

The escalation of his effort in Iowa, along with a more aggressive schedule in New Hampshire and an expanding presence in South Carolina, is the strongest indication yet that Mr. Romney is shifting from a defensive, make-no-mistakes crouch to an assertive offensive strategy. If he can take command in the three early-voting states, he could make the nominating battle a swift one.

“There is a lot of wisdom in trying to deliver a knockout punch,” said Matt Schultz, the Iowa secretary of state, who supported Mr. Romney four years ago but is unaligned now. “If he came and won Iowa and New Hampshire, it would be all over.” . . . Read More