As Iowa looms, GOP wonders: Does Trump have fans, or voters?

Ted Cruz’s team has a theory about how the next four weeks will go: He will edge out Donald Trump in Iowa, suffer a drubbing to him eight days later in New Hampshire, and then by the third week in February, actually be locked in the “two-man race” that he today confidently predicts the election has already entered. Trump asked his Twitter followers on Saturday if Cruz had any unreported loans from Canadian banks. The billionaire businessman made the comments at a tea party convention in SC in front of crowd split among supports of the two leading GOP White House contenders.

Whereas in the past Mr Cruz shrugged off Mr Trump’s occasional sniping in favour of an uneasy truce – and the hope that Mr Trump’s supporters would eventually change sides – the televised exchanges suggest a new period of open hostilities as the property mogul goes from strength to strength.

NY city lawmakers of all political stripes have bandied together to call out Cruz.

In a five-way contest between those candidates, Mr. Trump led with 35 percent, followed by Mr. Cruz at 19 percent, Mr. Rubio at 16 percent, Mr. Bush at 15 percent, and Mr. Carson at 10 percent.

“You know in terms of a commander-in-chief, I think we ought to have someone who isn’t springing out of bed and tweeting in response to the latest polls”. He also FORGOT to file his Goldman Sachs Million $ loan papers. Earlier this week, Cruz portrayed the first unreported loan, from Goldman Sachs, as a paperwork error.

But Trump’s attacks may have backfired.

Cruz’s statement prompted cries for an apology from many New Yorkers and he responded Saturday morning by going on the offensive.

“Everyone understands the values in New York City are socially liberal, pro-abortion, pro-gay marriage and focus around money and the media”, Cruz said. Mike Gonzalez, who runs an influential network of pastors across the state and is helping Cruz, says he’s eyeing a scenario in which Trump fails to blow away the field in the first two states and evangelicals in SC make the state a death knell, even if not his Waterloo.

His remarks to the Tea Party Coalition aside, Santorum defended Trump and took aim at Texas Sen.

“I’m all in favor of duking it out”, Levin said, “but I want them to duke it out in a way that helps we the people”.

“It does raise the question of, ‘OK, if you are offended at my pointing out how much the failed policies of Hillary Clinton and Andrew Cuomo and Bill de Blasio have hurt New Yorkers, then which of those policies do you agree with?”