Giuliani increases effort in Iowa

DES MOINES, Iowa, Nov. 17 (UPI) -- Rudy Giuliani's Republican presidential campaign has begun a quiet push in Iowa less than two months before the Jan. 3 caucuses.

Up to this point, while fellow GOP hopeful Mitt Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, has been targeting Iowa, Giuliani, the former mayor of New York, had been largely ignoring the state.

That appears to be changing, with Iowa Republicans now telling The New York Times the Giuliani campaign has been holding events such a session to teach supporters how to negotiate the caucus system.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and former Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee also have revved up their Iowa campaigns. U.S. Sen. John McCain of Arizona, competing with Giuliani for moderate Republicans, appears to have written off the mostly rural Midwestern farm state.

Giuliani leads national Republican polls but has been running behind in Iowa and New Hampshire. His campaign, like those of Romney and Thompson, has promised to stop illegal immigration.