Republican presidential candidate hopeful Newt Gingrich finally hit back on Sunday over the relentless and costly advertising campaign against him paid for by rival Mitt Romney.
Gingrich, angry over the ad campaign, made a desperate attempt to reverse his poll slump in the Iowa caucuses ahead of Tuesday's vote. Having managed to restrain himself for days, he accused multi-millionaire Romney of trying to buy his way to the nomination.
"Romney would buy the election if he could," Gingrich said.
In his bitterest comments yet, he said: "Frankly if you are willing to be dishonest to get try to be president why would we think you will be honest once you are president."
Romney and his allies, through the super-political action committee Restore Our Future, have spent an estimated $3.5-$4m in a ferocious ad campaign targeting Gingrich, mainly over his alleged role as a lobbyist for the mortgage groups Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Another rival, Ron Paul, has also been running ads aimed at Gingrich.
As a result, Gingrich has dropped from front-runner to fourth place, while Romney has jumped to the top spot.
Although political history shows that negative campaigning is usually effective, a backlash is building against Romney, with some voters expressing dismay over the strategy.
One of Gingrich's supporters, Richard Vandermey, a lawyer in Tama, Iowa, said: "It is disgusting. That is one of the reasons that has tipped me over [to support Gingrich]. I do not like the ads.
"I know others feel the same."
Supporters have urged Gingrich to respond with negative ads of his own but he insistedhe will continue to fight a positive campaign. He promised, though, that he would mount a more aggressive campaign against Romney in the next contest, New Hampshire.
In Marshalltown, Gingrich accused Romney of spending $3.5m to lie about him.
He was loudly applauded when he said: "Iowa has an opportunity to really change American politics by proving that negative ads don't work."
He added: "We can't change the negativity and divisiveness of Washington by voting for people who run the ads. I have done everything I could to run a positive campaign ... but we need help from the American people to say to the folks who are prepared to be negative and dishonest 'It will not work'."
Although the Des Moines Register poll on Saturday placed Gingrich fourth on 12%, he noted that 41% of those polled said they had still to make up their minds.
He insisted that Romney had not destroyed him, only slowed him down.
