• by Philip Rosenstein , Staff Writer, December 8, 2015

Recent signs had been pointing to a rising Ted Cruz, and the signs are now supported by the numbers. A brand new Iowa poll has Cruz at the top of the Republican field in the nation’s first primary contest, with 24%.

This column ran a piece a few weeks ago about Cruz’s heavy use of social media and the importance of having an engaged and motivated base. The strategy seems to be working, and his intense focus on Iowa has paid off.

According to the Des Moines Register, among the top five candidates, Cruz has the most event appearances in Iowa, totalling almost 100.

The Monmouth poll that put Cruz on top with 24%, has Trump at 19% and Rubio at 17%. Trump has experienced a serious drop -- a CBS/YouGov poll had him at 30% in mid-November.

The numbers are moving quickly and hard to pin down, but the trends are clear. Ben Carson is slowly but steadily losing support. Ted Cruz is finally bursting into the foreground.

Cruz has other reasons to be pleased about the shape of his campaign.

His money situation is robust, with almost $40 million from Super-PACs and around $25 million raised by the campaign. He leads Marco Rubio on both accounts. Cruz has, however, spent almost double what the Rubio campaign has doled out.

Again, we have seen Iowa polls move around significantly with Scott Walker, Carson, Trump and now Cruz having claimed the lead at some point. There is still a considerable amount of time to campaign until February.

Rich Lowry, editor of the National Review, gave a nod to Cruz on “Meet the Press” over the weekend. He now believes Cruz to be the outright front-runner in Iowa, and he opines that the candidate “who gets the least chatter, given how high his chances are of winning the nomination, is Ted Cruz.”