A surprising new poll out of Bloomberg News on Tuesday morning found that former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) is not the only Republican to benefit from the seeming demise of other prior frontrunners.

Beating all the odds and the pundits’ expectations, Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) has emerged as one of the new frontrunners for the GOP nomination to the presidency, topping even Gingrich and former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney and virtually tying former businessman Herman Cain for the lead.

All surveys counted, Bloomberg News found that Paul has the support of 19 percent of GOP primary voters, versus Cain’s 20, Romney’s 18 and Gingrich’s 17.

It’s just the latest in a string of small victories for Paul, who won a Calif. straw poll in Sept., an Ohio straw poll in Oct. and an Illinois straw poll earlier this month. He also dominated a CBS News viewer survey this week, which asked who won the last GOP debate and who should win the nomination. Paul topped all the other candidates by tens of thousands of votes, even though he was only given 89 seconds during the entire debate to speak.

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http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/11/15/poll-ron-paul-claims-frontrun...