COLUMBIA, S.C.- The old adage, 'Better late than never' would suitably fit the scenario GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum now finds himself in on the eve of the South Carolina primary.

Weeks after the January 3rd Iowa Caucuses and after they announced rival Mitt Romney as the apparent winner by 8 votes, the Iowa Republican party sent out an email late Friday affirming that the former Pennsylvania senator was the new victor of the first in the nation vote.

"In order to clarify conflicting reports and to affirm the results released January 18 by the Republican Party of Iowa, Chairman Matthew Strawn and the State Central Committee declared Senator Rick Santorum the winner of the 2012 Iowa Caucus," the Iowa GOP statement reads.

Earlier this week Santorum was shown to have a 34 vote lead over Romney after the certification process of the caucuses vote tally, essentially a process that involved a recount of the GOP ballots. Initially, the Iowa GOP essentially labeled it a virtual tie. (read more)

DES MOINES, Ia. - In a mad dash to the finish line in Iowa, Texas Governor Rick Perry is calling in the cavalry by launching an "Iowa Strike Force" made of hundreds of volunteers from his home state. The first wave began arriving Friday.

One Task Force member tells Fox News there are at least 400 of them on the ground in Iowa right now, and he expects there to be 600 come caucus day.

Strike Force members are working closely with the campaign, calling likely caucus goers, and going door to door to help boost support.
Others will serve as campaign surrogates at caucus sites, if an Iowan supporting Perry isn't available.

Outside support like this is not unique to the Perry campaign. Mike Huckabee brought in armies from all over the country in 2008. In 2004, college students decked out in orange hats canvassed the Hawkeye State for Howard Dean, and in 2000 George W. Bush also had bus loads of Texans sent into Iowa. (read more)

He may not be considered the most socially conservative candidate in the Republican race for president, but Iowa conservative radio host Steve Deace says Newt Gingrich is the only candidate that can get things done.

"For all his flaws, he understands historically what the left has used the judicial branch to do to this country," Deace told Fox News Saturday

"The first thing I believe must be done is re-establish the rule of law in this country and we cannot have that without the constitutional separation of power that Newt Gingrich has talked about," Deace added.

Deace said he had narrowed his options down to Gingrich and Texas Congressman Ron Paul, but he says Paul's foreign policy is "naïve at best and reckless at worst."

When asked why he didn't choose someone more socially conservative, Deace replied that while those issues are important, "If we wait around for everybody to say how pro life they are and 40 years for the courts to overturn their own Roe versus Wade precedent we'll be waiting for abortion to end in this country until Jesus returns."

"We have to confront an out of control judiciary branch once and for all," Deace said.

Campaign Carl Cameron is out on the trail in full force. He caught up with Newt Gingrich on his campaign bus in Sioux City Friday and asked about everything from what some say is a break with his positive campaign pledge, to why he says Ron Paul sits to the left of President Obama politically.

Here is a sample of the back and forth. You can catch the full interview on Special Report tonight at 6pm ET including Gingrich's clever answer to whether being asked the same questions over and over bothers him.

Q - Are Iowa republicans right to fear a Ron Paul win here, could that hurt this state's political reputation?

A - Sure... His primary youth backers are for him because he wants to legalize drugs. He has said that he doesn't care if Iranians get nuclear weapon. I think it was Dick Morris who said he is to the left of Obama, and whole series of issues. Ron Paul is a good protest candidate. He would be impossible as a serious presidential candidate.

Q - Was it premature on Dec 1st to predict you'd win the nomination? (read more)

Dubuque, Iowa - Continuing to contrast himself against Mitt Romney, the "Massachusetts moderate," Newt Gingrich declared he would grow the economy as president by reining in the government the way he had done with Ronald Reagan and Jack Kemp.

"In 1982, Reagan was talked into a tax increase, I opposed it. Kemp and I led the fight against it. Reagan said it was a mistake; it was the biggest single mistake of his administration. In 1990, President Bush wanted to raise taxes and I opposed it. We had a huge fight. The majority of Republicans voted no. And this fight still goes on today."

Gingrich said he had experienced this standoff twice already and had the experience to win the current standoff between tax cutters and tax hikers, putting the front-runner Mitt Romney in the latter category. (read more)

In Iowa, caucus campaigns are won and lost AWAY from the podium where the candidate is speaking.

"What I look for is are they actually signing people up?...and how do they actually do that?", says Craig Robinson, founder of the political blog TheIowaRepublican.com.

Robinson explains successful caucus efforts are often won and lost at the campaign events by staffers and volunteers working the crowds. What they're after is names, phone numbers and e-mail addresses. That contact data is gold.

"And as fast as you can," says Robinson, "you need to get it to your campaign office, so they can have a staffer follow-up."

Then, the barrage of contact is on.

"If they'll share an e-mail and a phone number with us...we will absolutely stay in touch. Give 'em a call and encourage 'em to come out on caucus night," says David Fischer, vice-chairman of Ron Paul's Iowa campaign.

At this stage, each week caucus campaigns are expected to be making tens of thousands of phone calls to potential caucus-goers. It is not unusual for a single Iowa household to get a half-dozen or more calls every evening from competing campaigns that have also plumbed the depth of voter registration information.

Ron Paul's campaign is viewed in Iowa as having built the best organization.

"Very strong," says Chuck Launder who consults for the Rick Santorum campaign, "Ron Paul has been at it for four or five years. You gotta give those guys their credit." (read more)

MANCHESTER, N.H. -- Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney says he doesn't have much control over the negative attack ads run by the so-called superPACs.

He's been roiled in a back and forth with rival Newt Gingrich, who has called the ads a smear campaign, but also acknowledged that they've been working.

Gingrich was surging in the polls a few weeks back, but his support has waned recently.

A pro-Romney group, Restore our Future, rolled out a new ad today hitting on what they call Newt's baggage, saying he has more than the "airlines" highlighting some of his congressional record as speaker of the house.

Romney tells Fox News' Chief Political Correspondent in an interview aboard his campaign bus touring through New Hampshire, that Newt hasn't been all positive.

"Well he's obviously engaged in a pretty negative series of attacks himself . Look a campaign is about pointing out differences, as you know under the law, I cannot direct the advertisements of PACs and I have to keep a distance from those. Could I come out and attack the PACs, sure by why would I come out and attack the ability of people to get to know differences among the candidates."

Gingrich's drumbeat for the last few weeks has been that he will run a positive campaign, and only respond when attacked directly.

Romney suggested that maybe he is being a little whiny. (read more)

As Texas Gov. Rick Perry storms across Iowa making his case to voters, Anita Perry is taking their "American Story" to the airwaves.

A 30 second TV ad that begins airing in Iowa today features the first lady of Texas telling the Perry family story, highlighting their Christian values, dedication to country, and small town love affair.

"It's an old-fashioned American story. I married my high school sweetheart, but first I had to wait as he volunteered for the Air Force and flew planes all over the world. When Rick's tour of duty as a captain in the Air Force ended, he returned home to farm with his dad and asked me to marry him. We grew up in small towns, raised with Christian values - values we still believe in. And we know Washington, D.C., could use some of that," says Mrs. Perry.

Mrs. Perry has campaigned hard for her husband. They meet up for debates and campaign events from time to time, but the former nurse holds her own, speaking at hospitals and nursing homes.

The campaign often highlights the couple's foundation in Christianity, it has been the focal point of many of Perry's TV ads. (read more)

Newt Gingrich is going out of his way to be seen as running a positive campaign, "Every once in a while, I slip, when they get my goat and I can't quite help myself, but overall I think I've done a pretty good job of staying focused on issues," the former House Speaker said Tuesday in Iowa.

To that end, last week at the FOX News debate in Sioux City, Iowa Gingrich told moderator Neil Cavuto that he was standing up there "editing [him]self."

Staying positive in a presidential campaign is a difficult proposition. While Newt Gingrich was greeting potential caucus voters at a Hy-Vee grocery in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa on Tuesday his spokesman R.C. Hammond was off to the side talking to Wall Street Journal reporter Jonathan Weisman.

What happened next is a classic example of sharp elbowed presidential campaign trail politics. The two were talking about a cable interview Mitt Romney had done Tuesday morning in which the former Massachusetts governor said he didn't have influence over the Super PACs producing attack ads against Gingrich, even if one of the groups is led by a former Romney staffer. (read more)

Rick Perry reached out for a little help from one of his biggest supporters Tuesday, with Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal joining him on the campaign trail.

While answering a question during a town hall meeting in Maquoketa, Iowa, Perry forgot about the about the standard deduction he built into his own flat tax plan, saying it would be gone.

Jindal quickly chimed in to correct him. "You actually keep the standard deduction in your flat tax," said the popular Bayou State Republican. 

"Oh that's right, as a matter of fact we raise it to $12,500, uh, per family I think," Perry replied. "Thank you for correcting me on that governor... not that I ever make a mistake."

Jindal is stumping with Perry Tuesday and Wednesday as the Texas governor wraps up the first leg of his 42 city Iowa bus tour.

The popular Louisiana Governor's endorsement was highly coveted in the Republican field and he announced his support for Perry's candidacy back in September.