Politics Dashboard: The sprint to the Iowa caucuses

The Politics Dashboard is back from the holiday in time for the Iowa caucuses. Our Election 2012 team is on the ground in the Hawkeye state, and while it’s there, we’re bringing you the top news on the race from around the Web in tweets.

Is Romney’s Iowa strategy working?

First time I've seen Romney in retail setting since '08. He's roughly 1000x better at it now

— Sam Youngman (@samyoungman) December 28, 2011

“The prospect of a Romney victory in Iowa has alarmed virtually everyone else in the Republican field,” wrote Dan Balz and Amy Gardner in their Washington Post A-1 Iowa story Wednesday. “Were he to win next week and couple that with an expected victory in New Hampshire, Romney would put himself in a commanding position to win the nomination.”

The New York Times’ Ashley Parker and Michael Barbaro report on that ground game and the peculiar ways Romney attempts to connect with voters - including frequently asking their age and ethnicity.

Gingrich PAC fights back.

Eager to see how Newt disavows & attacks his Super PAC, as promised, now that they've gone negative on Romney

— Scott Conroy (@RealClearScott) December 28, 2011

Gingrich promised earlier this month to stay positive but an onslaught of negative attack ads from his rivals, including Romney and Rep. Ron Paul. But, according to the Fix’s Chris Cillizza, Gingrich won’t technically have to attack back. His Super PAC will fund ads that do it for him.

Want to keep an eye out for attacks ads by the candidates or their Super PACs? Use our “Mad Money” campaign ad tracker to watch them and get spending data.

Piling on Paul

Mitt in Muscatine: "One of the people running for president thinks its ok for Iran to have a nuclear weapon. I don't."

— Reid Epstein (@reidepstein) December 28, 2011

It has come to this: Perry does soft contrast w Paul at top of remarks.W/o mention of name, cites candidate who'd let Iran get nukes

— jmartpolitico (@jmartpolitico) December 28, 2011

Two things are certain in the Twitter world over the next week: Your twitter feed will be clogged with multiple tweets about candidates’ quotes from campaign speeches. And many of those quotes will allude to Paul’s vulnerabilities.

From the Associated Press: “The closer the first votes of the 2012 presidential campaign get, the more competitive the Texas congressman has become.” And his rivals are taking notice of that. Read the full story.

Perry sues for VA primary

ICYMI: Rick Perry Files Lawsuit To Get On Virginia Primary Ballot (and wants his attorneys' fees paid by VA/VAGOP) j.mp/tw8tUU

— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) December 28, 2011

PostLocal’s Anita Kumar and Martin Weil have details on Rick Perry’s efforts to earn a spot on the Virginia ballot after he and Gingrich failed to collect the 10,000 signatures required for the March 6 primary.

Tweet#CampaignReads

#CampaignReads is back from the holidays and we’re looking for Iowa-specific stories leading up to the caucuses. Flag the best reads on the campaign trail-happenings, analysis and trends on Twitter using #CampaignReads. We will feature them in an Election 2012 blog post this afternoon.

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