Newt Gingrich during a campaign stop at the Dubuque Golf and Country Club in Dubuque, Iowa, on Tuesday.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Des Moines, Iowa (CNN) -- It might be New Year's Eve weekend, but with the Iowa caucuses closing in, there is no holiday for the Republican presidential candidates.
Most of the field continued to crisscross the state on Saturday ahead of Tuesday's caucuses, which kick off the primary and caucus calendar.
Rep. Ron Paul, who has seen his poll numbers in Iowa rise over the past couple of weeks, is spending the weekend in Texas with his wife but his campaign said the congressman will be back on the trail Monday morning.
With his jump in polls, Paul has come under increased attack from the other candidates and from some conservative groups, who call his views on foreign policy dangerous.
"I think going up in the polls all of a sudden, they came out of political necessity for them to find something. They couldn't find any flip-flops so they had to work on something else," he told a crowd in LeMars.
"Those people who say that these ideas that I express are dangerous, it sort of baffles me a whole lot because I think big government is dangerous. I think wars fought endlessly are dangerous. I think printing money and expanding government at will, that is what is dangerous. Attack on personal liberty, that is what's dangerous."
The Texas congressman picked up an endorsement from a former -- and possibly future -- rival when Gary Johnson, who dropped out of the Republican race last week to pursue the Libertarian nomination, urged his GOP followers to support Paul.
In his letter to supporters, Johnson, a former two-term governor of New Mexico, acknowledged his views and Paul's were not perfectly aligned.
"While Ron Paul and I are both libertarians, we don't necessarily agree on every single issue," Johnson wrote. "However, on the over-riding issues of restoring our economy by cutting out-of-control spending and the need to get back to Constitutional principles in our government, Ron Paul and I are in lock-step."
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, the other front-runner in Iowa, returns to the state from New Hampshire on Saturday and will campaign here through caucus day. Polls indicate Romney is the overwhelming front-runner there.
Romney, who has only made eight trips to Iowa this year, is in first place there in a CNN/Time/ORC International and NBC News/Marist polls released earlier this week.
Before returning to Iowa, Romney chose to focus less on his Republican rivals and more on President Barack Obama, who he said would be remembered in history only as a "footnote."
"I was asked yesterday by a reporter how the president would be remembered in history," Romney said at an event on New Hampshire's seacoast. "I said as a footnote in history. We have major challenges and he hasn't dealt with them. We have a debt problem. What's he done about it? Made it worse!"
"I don't think he's a bad guy, I think he's overwhelmed and over his head," Romney said.
A poll to be released Saturday night will be the first indication of where the candidates stand when the Des Moines Register releases its final survey before the caucuses.
Newt Gingrich began a full weekend of barnstorming across Iowa with an event in Council Bluffs. The former House speaker, who was once the front-runner in the state, has seen his numbers plunge the last three weeks.
On Friday, he made headlines not for what he said, but for what he did. The candidate teared up at a campaign stop in Des Moines as he talked about his mother who suffered from bipolar disorder and depression.
"See how I'm getting emotional?" he said.
Gingrich has been the subject of a number of negative ads in the state after he vaulted to the top of the field a month ago but will get some positive reinforcement as the conservative publication Newsmax begins airing a half-hour special promoting the candidate.
The "The Newsmax 2012 Election Special," hosted by Michael Reagan, son of former President Ronald Reagan, is to air on "major broadcast outlets" in Iowa throughout the weekend, according to the publication.
The latest polls indicate Gingrich battling former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania and Texas Gov. Rick Perry for third place. Santorum, once a long shot, has seen his numbers surge in Iowa.
"A week ago, we were in last place. Right now, people are thinking we might finish third," said Santorum at an event at a sports bar in Ames.
"I think we've got a very strong message and we've very effectively been able to communicate that. I'm sure the scrutiny will come," he said.
It already is.
"He voted to raise the debt ceiling eight times, eight times while he was in the United States Senate -- more than doubling our debt, putting on the backs of these young people, from some $4.1 trillion to $9 trillion," Perry said about Santorum. "How can you say that is fiscally conservative?"
In response, Santorum called Perry a hypocrite.
Perry and Santorum each barnstorm across Iowa this weekend, along with Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, whose poll numbers remain in the single digits and who's seeing smaller crowds at her campaign stops.
The other major Republican candidate, former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, is concentrating his efforts on the New Hampshire primary, which comes a week after Iowa.
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