Texas congressman and GOP presidential hopeful Ron Paul has spent days campaigning and poured his money and resources into Minnesota ahead of Tuesday's causes. Paul is looking for his first win of the GOP campaign, and he will be the only candidate to remain in Minnesota on caucus night.

Paul spent the most time in Minnesota of any competitors ahead of Tuesday's voting, reflecting Paul's strategy of concentrating on caucus states where he can amass national convention delegates even if he doesn't win. Four years ago, Paul won nearly 16 percent of the caucus vote to finish fourth in Minnesota, where Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney won.

His chances today are not looking hopeful. A Public Policy Polling survey of likely Minnesota GOP caucusgoers taken Saturday showed all four candidates within 10 percentage points of each other, with Rick Santorum ahead with 29 percent of the vote, Mitt Romney in second, Newt Gingrich in third, and Ron Paul trailing behind. Only a small cross-section of GOP voters will turn out for the straw poll, perhaps as few as 60,000.

But, Paul's supporters are fervent, and his passionate and devoted followers could flock to the polls. The libertarian candidate has spent months building an wide network of supporters who could wield outsized influence in Tuesday's non-binding poll.

Cyndy Brucato, a Minneapolis-based Republican consultant and former television broadcaster, said he “really kind of attracts the kind of voter that Minnesota tends to put out, a little bit independent and kind of a looking for something to be off the beaten track.” 

At a last-minute rally in the Minneapolis Convention Center, more than 1,800 people crowded around to hear Ron Paul. "They call us dangerous," he said. "We are dangerous to the status quo and to the people who have been ripping us off!" Earlier in the day, Paul drew more than 900 supporters in St. Cloud.

Minnesota is home to a quirky, conservative GOP base with a history of embracing alternative politicians, potentially giving Paul his last and best hot. Even though Romney won in 2008, he has tried to downplay expectations, canceling an event on Monday and leaving the campaigning to former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty.

With Romney's impressive wins in Florida and Nevada, Minnesota has become the battleground for the remaining GOP candidates to shake up the race. While Newt Gingrich has resigned himself to defeat in Colorado and Missouri, he believes that Minnesota is his best shot to pick up several convention delegates. Still, the chilly Northern state is far from his Southern base. Gingrich will spend the day campaigning in Ohio, and his Minnesota campaign headquarters in a hotel conference room in Minneapolis had just four people making phone calls and writing emails Monday morning.

Nonetheless, Ginrich issued a strong attack against President Barack Obama and Romney, whom he accused of being a moderate who would not undertake the needed changes in Washington.  "The real underlying question in this campaign is whether we want an election that involves real change on a large scale,'' Gingrich told a packed conference room. "Or whether we want an election that has small differences, fighting over who is going to manage the decay.''

In sharp contrast to Iowa, Mitt Romney's super PAC Restore Our Future has purchased only $131,000 in media time to attack Gingrich in Minnesota this week.

Forty delegates are at stake in Minnesota on Tuesday. Romney currently leads the field with 101 pledged delegates, followed by Gingrich with 32, Santorum with 17, and Paul with 9. A candidate needs 1,144 delegates to clinch the nomination.

Photo Credit: Justin Ruckman