Hostility, negative ads build up between Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio

Rubio saw a surge in the polls in late November, pushing him to a distant third in Iowa and hovering in around third place in New Hampshire and SC, but his polling has hit a plateau since then. According to the Public Religion Research Institute, Iowa’s population of white mainline Protestants and white Catholics have each dropped by five percentage points over the last seven years, while the state’s share of white Evangelicals has risen a percentage point.

The alleged strength of Cruz’s ground game is evident in the poll. Front-runner Trump also likely gained traction with that base when he was endorsed by evangelical leader and Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. It’s only one poll but it’s the best news Rubio fans have had in months. Well, at this point you’d think Cruz would be throwing everything he has at Trump to try to win the caucuses.

Showing images of Mr. Rubio standing with the so-called Gang of Eight senators who wrote the 2013 immigration overhaul, the spot features a clip from Rush Limbaugh explaining that the Florida senator was a part of that group while Mr. Cruz was not. Mr. Rubio, in some of his sharpest words to date about Mr. Cruz, called him a liar.

In contrast to Bush, Senator Ted Cruz, who is running second in national polls of Republican voters, favors cheaper accommodation options like Holiday Inn and often flies on budget carriers, campaign finance filings through the third quarter show.

Ad-tracking firm SMG Delta said Bush’s campaign and Right to Rise have spent $82 million on ads, significantly more than the three leading candidates in the GOP race: Donald Trump ($5 million); Cruz ($11 million) and Sen.

One more piece of evidence, this time from Dave Wasserman of FiveThirtyEight in a post titled “It’s Rubio or Bust for Republicans Who Want to Win”. “They spent a lot of money there as well”. In fourth is Ben Carson with 10 percent. If 130,000 Republican voters caucused, Cruz and Trump would be tied at 26 percent.

The announcement comes after Trump announced he would skip Fox’s debate Thursday night due to an ongoing feud with the network. And really, that’s all he’s been hoping for in Iowa for weeks now.