After weeks of controversy following the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses, Matt Strawn, the chairman of the Iowa Republican Party, today said he will step down from his role with the party at the end of next week.
 
Strawn, who has served as the GOP chairman in the first-in-the-nation caucus state since 2009, announced his resignation in a statement. “It is only because the Iowa GOP has returned as a strong and relevant voice in Iowa politics that I am now able to evaluate all the competing priorities in my personal, business and political life."

He added, "The party is strong and has the resources in place for victory in November. Now is the time to transition to new leadership."
 
Strawn's resignation is effective Friday, Feb. 10.

Mitt Romney was declared the winner of the caucus by a mere eight votes during the wee hours of the morning on caucus night. After the certified results came in nearly two weeks later, Rick Santorum pulled ahead of Romney by 34 votes.

The Iowa GOP was also never able to account for all 1,774 precincts –- 8 precinct votes could not be tabulated because the Form Es were not collected.
 
On Jan. 19, the Iowa GOP sent out a press release congratulating both Santorum and Romney on their performance in Iowa, but did not declare a winner despite Santorum being ahead by 34 votes.
 
The Santorum campaign and supporters were unhappy with the lack of official word declaring their candidate the winner.
 
Later that day, however, Strawn went on an Iowa radio station and began to change his tone on the subject -- and leaned towards saying Santorum was the winner.
 
This switch brought additional criticisms of the chairman as well –- and confusion nationally as to who was the true winner in Iowa.
 
The Iowa GOP was forced to send a press release on Jan. 20 stating: "In order to clarify conflicting reports and to affirm the results released Jan. 18 by the Republican Party of Iowa, Chairman Matthew Strawn and the State Central Committee declared Senator Rick Santorum the winner of the 2012 Iowa Caucus."
 
But many in Iowa are sad to see Strawn step down.
 
"For three years, Matt's focus on fundraising and voter registration was unparalleled. Because of him, the Iowa GOP is better prepared to go in to the 2012 elections,” State Central Committee member Tim Moran told NBC News. "I wish him well as he prepares for the next stage of his life"
 
The Governor of Iowa also thanked the Chairman for his dedication to the state.
 
“I want to thank Matt Strawn for his three years of leadership at the Republican Party of Iowa. Matt took over at a time when the party was in desperate shape, and rebuilt it precinct-by-precinct, putting it in the strongest position in years,” Gov. Terry Branstad said in a written statement. “Matt’s leadership will be missed, but I am confident a smooth transition will take place at the Republican Party of Iowa and we will continue our party’s successes this November.”
 
The State Central Committee will be tasked with electing Strawn’s replacement. The next quarterly meeting is scheduled for Feb. 11.

Matt Strawn is expected to step down as Chairman of the Republican Party of Iowa soon, sources tell NBC News.

The exact timing and reason for the anticipated resignation is unknown.

Questions were raised about Strawn's continuation as Chairman of the GOP after the final Iowa Caucus votes came in earlier this month.

Mitt Romney was declared the winner of the caucus by 8 votes during the wee hours of the morning on caucus night. After the certified results came in nearly two weeks later, Rick Santorum pulled ahead of Romney by 34 votes.

The switch of winners was not the full extent of the discrepancy -- there were also 8 final precinct numbers missing.

The Party originally sent out a press release on Jan. 19^th congratulating both Romney and Santorum without necessarily declaring a winner. Later that day, however, Strawn went on an Iowa radio station and began to change his tone on the subject and leaned towards saying Santorum was the winner.

Because of the confusion, the Iowa GOP was forced to send a press release on Jan. 20th stating: "In order to clarify conflicting reports and to affirm the results released January 18 by the Republican Party of Iowa, Chairman Matthew Strawn and the State Central Committee declared Senator Rick Santorum the winner of the 2012 Iowa Caucus."

One Iowa State Central Committee (SCC) member who had not heard about the possible resignation of Strawn told NBC News, "I certainly hope it isn't true. He's the best chairman we've had in Iowa as long as I've been active in politics."

The SCC holds their quarterly meeting next month.

ROCK HILL, S.C. – Newly an Iowa caucus veteran, Anita Perry told a group of Republican women here that she was “surprised” at her husband Rick’s fifth place showing because his crowds in the state had been so enthusiastic.

“I thought, oh, we’re going to do much better than we did, you know, sixth, or fifth or fourth,” she said.

Referring to a Texas Tribune columnist’s line a few days after the caucus, Perry said, “It truly felt like we were ‘kicked in the stomach’ because that was not what I thought was going to happen that night.”

Like her husband has done in the past, Perry attributed part of his poor showing to the caucus’ open format, where Democrats and independents can also vote. But South Carolina has an open primary too, although unlike Iowa, voters can’t register at the polls but have a 30-day cutoff. 

The Texas first lady was joined at the event, hosted by the York County Republican Women, by Rep. Mick Mulvaney, an early Perry supporter who also went to Iowa to make caucus speeches that he said were well-received but fruitless. 

“While everybody is saying the right things, only Governor Perry has actually done them,” Mulvaney said, then paused before he added, “That was, by the way, that’s the end of my 2-minute caucus speech. And we didn’t do so well.”

In an interview with NBC News after the event, Mulvaney said that Perry had been defined by his debate performances in Iowa and that in order to revive his campaign here, he needs to portray himself as a candidate who can win the presidency and not focus so much on his record as governor of Texas.

“I think that if we can convince people that he can win, he’s got a chance to win South Carolina.”

Mulvaney, a fiscally-focused legislator who helped craft Perry’s jobs plan, also said he would like Perry (as he would most lawmakers) to talk more about the economy, but said he understands Perry is contrasting himself with the other “non-Romney” candidates by painting himself as the most socially conservative choice.

“I think it’s just a dynamic of what this race has sort of shaken out as, which is sort of Romney and then the non-Romney candidate,” Mulvaney said. “One of the distinguishing factors between Gov. Perry, Sen. Santorum, Mr. Gingrich, would be on the social issues.”

The freshman congressman added that while he had initially been unsure as to whether or not Perry would drop out of the race after his poor Iowa results, he was happy he decided not to. 

“I was glad that he stayed in because it gives him, if nothing else, a chance to reclaim his reputation. There’s a reason the man has run the 13th largest economy in the world for the last 11 years. He’s really good at what he does.”

During her speech, Anita Perry also noted what she said was her husband’s resolve to continue on to South Carolina after Iowa.

“Within five or six hours he called me up - he’d gone for a run – and said, ‘Are you ready to go to South Carolina?’ And I said ‘yes I am,’” Perry said as the group of Republican women applauded.

While the women seemed happy to host a candidates’ spouse, at least one of the group’s leaders expressed dissatisfaction that Gov. Nikki Haley decided to declare a preference in the primary: Mitt Romney.

“It really was unfair to the other candidates because it points toward somebody as far as the members of your state. And so I am disappointed in that,” said York County Republican Women president Pogo Olson.

DUBUQUE, Iowa -- Mitt Romney’s stance on abortion is being called into question a week out from the Iowa caucuses.

Republicans in Iowa received a text message to their cell phones very early Tuesday morning questioning Romney's anti-abortion credentials.

“Romney exposed at 2012 caucuses. Romney pro life??” the text one Iowan received at 4:00 am CST reads.

Upon calling the 515 area-code number the text message lists, an automated message on the other end includes hearing Romney’s answer during a debate when he ran for U.S. Senate 17 years ago.

“Mitt Romney on life,” an unidentified man’s voice says as the automated message begins.

“As a nation, we recognize the right of all people to believe as they want and not to impose our beliefs on other people,” Romney’s voice is heard saying next –- this comes from an Oct. 25, 1994 Massachusetts senate debate.

“I believe that abortion should be safe and legal in this country,” Romney continues. “I have since the time that my mom took that position when she ran in 1970 as a U.S. Senate candidate. I believe that since Roe v. Wade has been the law for 20 years that we should sustain and support it. And I sustain and support that law and the right of a women to make that choice.”

In 2005, Romney changed his position from supporting abortion rights to opposing them.

Neither the text message nor the automated message gives any indication who sent or paid for the messages.

The abortion issue plays very big with conservatives in Iowa. 2008 Iowa caucus winner, Mike Huckabee, even held a forum and movie premiere in Des Moines this month focusing on abortion. Romney did not attend, although Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, Michele Bachmann, and Rick Perry did.

Here is video from C-Span from that '94 Massachusetts Senate debate where the response from Romney originates.

*** UPDATE *** Per NBC's Michelle Perry, Romney Communications Director Gail Gitcho responded on MSNBC's "Andrea Mitchell Reports" to these text messages questioning Romney's abortion stance.

Gitcho said abortion is the one substantial issue he has admitted he has changed his position. He is now pro-life, she said -- not something he is going to change his position on.

Richard Ellis / Getty Images file

Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich speaks to supporters on Friday in Columbia, South Carolina.

DES MOINES, Iowa – It appears Newt Gingrich isn’t playing nice anymore.

The Gingrich campaign is out with its first opposition email directly hitting none other than GOP rival Mitt Romney -- a move that signals a departure from the positive-only campaign Gingrich himself promised to run.

“Can we trust a Massachusetts Moderate to enact a conservative agenda?," Gingrich Communications Director Joe DeSantis writes in the email sent out Monday evening. "Our campaign might have plenty of things to say about that, but the best response certainly comes from Mitt Romney himself: 'I think people recognize that I am not a partisan Republican. That I'm someone who is moderate, and that my views are progressive.'"

The email, labeled “FACT SHEET: MITT THE MASSACHUSETTS MODERATE,” makes fun of Romney’s new television ad running in Iowa during which the former Massachusetts Governor portrays himself as a "conservative businessman.” It quotes what people have said about Romney and a few things Romney has said in the past.

Ironically, the former House Speaker is currently running a TV ad in Iowa himself, during which he says: “Others seem to be more focused on attacks, rather than moving the country forward. That's up to them.” 

DECORAH, Iowa -- The critics of Gov. Rick Perry's controversial "war on religion" ad aren't going away.

After his last campaign event of the night Sunday, Perry was approached by a teenaged girl who questioned him about his recent Iowa ad taking aim at gays serving openly in the military.

"I'm just wondering why you're so opposed to gays serving openly in the military and you want to deny their freedom when they're fighting and dying for your right to run for president?" asked 14-year-old Rebecka Green, who was accompanied to the Decorah town hall by her father Todd.

Perry, who has faced scattered protests on the issue throughout his bus tour in Iowa, told the young woman that he believed President Barack Obama was pressured to change a functional "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy by a progressive voting block.

"Don't Ask Don't Tell was working," he said, later adding "This president was forced by his base to change that policy."

Perry said that a voter recently asked him how he would feel if his son or daughter was gay. "I'd feel the same way," he said, recounting his answer. "I'd hate the sin but I'd love the sinner."

Green told reporters after the exchange that she wasn't satisfied by Perry's answer. "Nobody should be able to tell anybody who they can or cannot love," she said. Her father, a Democrat who teaches religion at a nearby college, said that he brought her to the event because she was outraged by the premise of the ad.

The exchange wasn't the only tense moment of the evening at an otherwise subdued town hall.

Asked about the dangerous of hydraulic fracking, Perry launched into his common claim that there is no documentation of groundwater contamination as a result of the practice, which he says is safely conducted in Texas.

Decorah native Jonathan Ruf, 31, chimed in from the audience, saying "that's false."

A visibly annoyed Perry countered by challenging Ruf to "show me the paper."

"Bring me the paper, bring me the paper, show me the paper," he said. "I am truly offended that the American public would be hoodwinked by stories that do not scientifically hold up."

"This is a fear tactic that the left is using and the environmental community is using that absolutely - excuse the pun - doesn't hold water," he added.

"Bring me the evidence and once we do that, you show it to me and I will be the first to say you have a point."

Obtained by NBC News

DES MOINES, Iowa -- When Iowans opened their mailboxes this week, they found a lot of campaign literature criticizing none other than the current front-runner, Newt Gingrich.

With just days to go before the Iowa caucuses, at least five separate direct-mail pieces from the Mitt Romney, Ron Paul and Rick Perry campaigns are floating around the Hawkeye State targeting the former House speaker. In addition, a pro-Romney SuperPAC, Restore Our Future, also has anti-Gingrich literature out.

Newt Gingrich is the “latest flavor of the month,” a letter from Ron Paul to his fellow conservatives says. “This particular flavor, however, will leave a bitter taste, as there are serious problems with his policies and beliefs.”

Obtained by NBC News

Romney’s campaign literature links Gingrich to fellow former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. It shows a distorted black and white version of a TV ad that the two former speakers did together and reads: “When Al Gore needed allies … he turned to his friend Nancy Pelosi to push job-killing climate change legislation. When Pelosi wasn’t enough … They turned to Newt Gingrich.”

Restore Our Future also tries to link Gingrich with Pelosi. “Pelosi and Gingrich: More in common than you think,” a mailer from the PAC says. It accuses Gingrich of co-sponsoring 418 bills with her in Congress and of flip-flopping on a number of issues, including global warming. “When you attend the January 3^rd caucus, ask yourself: Who is the consistent conservative who can defeat President Obama? IT’S NOT NEWT GINGRICH,” the double-sided mailer reads.

In another mailer paid for by Restore Our Future, it asks “Why does the Obama machine want to run against Newt Gingrich?” and lists 11 different issues that it says Gingrich has “flip-flopped on” over the years. The front side of the mailer depicts a smiling President Barack Obama holding a newspaper with a faux headline reading “Newt wins Iowa.”

And Texas Gov. Rick Perry took on both Gingrich and Romney in his new mailer, questioning whether conservatives can trust either of the front-runners with their vote. “Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich have abandoned our values and profited at our expense,” the ad reads. “Romney and Gingrich: supported Obamacare mandate. Wrong on abortion. Rich off of America’s misery.”

Obtained by NBC News

These anti-Gingrich pieces are just the latest in a slew of attacks on him from his GOP rivals, including attacks on the air in Iowa.

In just a 30-minute period during Friday's nightly news program on a local television channel in the Des Moines market, eight presidential campaign ads ran during commercial breaks. Half the ads that ran were attacking Gingrich (paid for by Restore Our Future, Ron Paul or Rick Perry). The other four were positive ads by the Paul, Romney and Perry campaigns plus one from a pro-Rick Santorum SuperPAC.

Gingrich vows to remain positive in his campaign for the nomination and only hit one opponent: Barack Obama.

Obtained by NBC News

Obtained by NBC News

IOWA CITY, Iowa -- Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich was disrupted by more than a dozen protesters as he started to give an address on brain science on Wednesday afternoon at the University of Iowa.

"Mic check. Mr. Gingrich, we are here to protest your speech today." the protesters yelled inside the 250-seat auditorium that had standing room only.

"I appreciate that 95 percent percent of you, maybe even 99 percent of you wanted to actually have an intelligent discussion and are not going to be drowned out by the 1% who try to impose there will by trying to make noise," Gingrich fired back after listening politely and delaying his speech for roughly five minutes.

The speaker was criticized by two of his GOP rivals today -- Mitt Romney and Ron Paul -- and was asked to address these criticisms by the press in light of Gingrich's call to run a positive campaign.

"I think a brain science initiative is the way of helping human beings… I'll let him decide if it's zany," Gingrich said in response to Romney having called Gingrich "zany" in an interview earlier in the day with the New York Times.

"They should run their campaign the way they want to. I'm going to run my campaign the way I want to. My campaign's going to focus on positive ideas and positive solutions and I'm frankly taking the gamble that the American people care about actually solving our country's problems, not just watching politicians beat each other up," Gingrich responded.

Speaker Gingrich called Ron Paul a "formidable candidate" who he takes "very seriously" and said he wants to continue to run a "positive" campaign despite Paul laughing at his proposal to not go negative.

"The question is," the speaker told the press on his competitors going negative, "after we're done with the first wave of negativity, do people start shrugging it off and saying it says more about the person who runs the ad than it does about Newt Gingrich."

Gingrich met with a group of 30 scientists following his speech here at the university to discuss his strategies for saving money in the brain science field.

He continues finishes his two-day swing of Iowa tomorrow when he participates in the final GOP debate before the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses.

URBANDALE, IA -- The announcement by former Godfathers Pizza CEO Herman Cain that he is suspending his run for president exactly one month before the Iowa caucuses drew wistful reactions today from top Iowa staffers and volunteers.

"The Cain train has been derailed today," Cain's Iowa Chairman Steve Grubbs told NBC News during an on-camera interview shortly after Cain's announcement, which was delivered from Atlanta, GA.

Grubbs, who joined the campaign right after Cain began his rise in the polls, said he was "disappointed" his candidate dropped out, but noted recent scandals took the presidential hopeful away from his message.

"Boy, what I would have given for a couple of drama-free weeks just to focus on message and organization," Grubbs said.

Cain received weeks of scrutiny over a possible extramarital affair and sexual-harassment allegations against him, though he denied the claims. The most recent allegation -- and, it seems final straw for his campaign -- came two weeks ago, when Ginger White accused the Georgia businessman of engaging in a 13-year affair with her. Cain said the two were merely friends and he helped her financially, although he later revealed to the media he never informed his wife of 43 years, Gloria, that he was helping White.

Neither Grubbs nor other Iowa campaign staff knew what Cain would say when he took the podium at what was billed as an event marking the opening of his Georgia headquarters.

"I'm the Iowa communications director for Iowa, but I know nothing," said Lisa Lockwood, a staffer in Cain's state headquarters here in Urbandale, shortly before the announcement.

Lockwood watched Cain's announcement stream in live on her laptop as a gaggle of reporters looked on. 

"I'm surprised, I'm disappointed," Lockwood said afterward, visibly choked up. "I think he's an awesome man, and I think he would have been awesome president."

Outside Lockwood's office, the headquarters had the feel of a campaign abruptly interrupted. Three-thousand yard signs had just been delivered to the office Tuesday night.

State director Larry Tuel said cubicles for phone banks had been installed only days ago.

"I like a fight, and I think Herman Cain does, too," Tuel said. "I wanted to stay in, because I think we could do well in Iowa.

One supporter, Patti Spencer Burdette, said she spent all day Friday delivering signs for the campaign. 

"We love him, and he loves us," Burdette said. "Were a family. And there's sadness in the family."

But outside his family of stalwart volunteers, support for Cain has dropped in Iowa since the allegations came to light. A new Des Moines Register Iowa poll shows Herman Cain polling at just 8% among likely caucus-goers. This is down from the 23% of support he received in the Register's October poll.

Iowa GOP Chairman Matt Strawn told NBC News Cain's that withdrawal -- 30 days before the caucuses -- adds yet more uncertainty to a very fluid and crowded race.

"I think there is a huge opportunity for those Herman Cain supporters to find a home behind a candidate or two and give them momentum," Strawn said.

Several caucus-goers inside a restaurant near Cain's headquarters paid tribute to Cain Saturday, but added that during the past several weeks they had settled on a candidate: former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

"He has an intelligent grasp of all the issues, and I perceive he is the most competent to lead this nation back into its prosperity," said James Sandin, a Des Moines resident, of Gingrich.

But Sandin added that he is a strong admirer of Cain. "He portrayed himself as a man of the people. A common man, a business man, not a politician," he said.  "He will be missed in the campaign."