While the mainstream media begins to set their sights on Newt Gingrich as he surges in the polls in recent weeks, the latest numbers out of Iowa reaffirm that fellow Republican candidate Ron Paul has a real chance in the race.

Results from a poll conducted by Bloomberg News earlier this month placed Paul, a medical doctor and libertarian icon, in a statistical tie for first place among the current GOP candidates for Iowa voters. As sexual harassment scandals continue to plague pizzaman Herman Cain and Rick Perry’s unforgettable flub at the CNBC debate have taken a toll on the candidates, Paul has managed to only increase in popularity among voters.

A recent Iowa State/Gazette/KCRG poll also put Paul towards the top, trailing only Herman Cain with 20 percent of the vote.

As the Iowa caucuses get closer and closer, Paul’s popularity suggests that he could emerge from the Hawkeye State as the victor in what is considered by many to be the crucial first step in securing the Republican nomination for the presidency.

During the Iowa straw poll earlier this summer, Paul placed second behind Michele Bachmann, who has seen a serious slump in the race in the months that followed. “He came very close. Very, very close,” economist Lew Rockwell of the Ludwig Von Mises Institute told RT at the time. “The political establishment is going to have to be torn down — I think Ron Paul can do that.”

Back in August, those in Iowa got to take the first glance at the Republican frontrunners 15 months before Election Day 2012. More important than the state’s straw poll, however, is the upcoming caucuses, that could pave the way for the rest of the race.

And if the hype that Ron Paul has managed to attract in Iowa as of late is any indication of things to come, his campaign is only going to heat up.

“A caucus state like Iowa is tailor-made to maximize the vote for a candidate like Ron Paul,” University of Virginia Center for Politics Director Larry Sabato tells The Daily Caller. “He has a dedicated band of supporters who will show up to vote in three feet of snow.”

It was a grass roots campaign during the months leading up to the 2008 election which managed to garner heavy support for Paul among a rapidly growing fan base of diehard supporters. Paul is finding such luck again in Iowa early in the race, and while the mainstream makes Gingrich and Romney the faces of the frontrunner candidates, the numbers coming in show that Paul has just as good of a chance at taking the GOP nod — if not better.

In addition to tying in the recent Bloomberg poll, the news organization adds that Paul came in seven percentage points ahead of Mitt Romney at first place in a similar survey answered only by those who have already made up their minds about the race.

In a recent post to his Twitter account, Craig Robinson, a former political director for the Republican Party of Iowa, said that Ron Paul has his support this time around.

“We have a strong ground game in the state that is reaching out at a faster pace than any other campaign,” Trygve Olson, a Paul adviser, adds to the Washington Post.

Paul and the other GOP hopefuls will participate in a televised debate from Washington DC live this Tuesday.