A new Gravis Marketing survey in Iowa finds Donald Trump way ahead of the GOP pack with 31%, followed by Scott Walker at 15%, Jeb Bush at 10%, Bobby Jindal at 7%, Mike Huckabee at 6%, Ted Cruz at 6%, Ben Carson at 5% and John Kasich at 5%.

A new Monmouth University Poll in Iowa finds Scott Walker leading the GOP field with 22%, followed by Donald Trump at 13%, Ben Carson at 8%, Jeb Bush at 7%, Ted Cruz at 7%, Mike Huckabee at 6%, Marco Rubio at 5% and Rand Paul at 5%.

A new Quinnipiac poll in Iowa finds Sen. Bernie Sanders is gaining ground on Hillary Clinton in the Iowa Democratic Caucus and now trails the front-runner 52% to 33% among likely caucus participants.

A new Quinnipiac poll in Iowa finds Scott Walker leading the GOP presidential pack at 18%, followed by Donald Trump at 10%, Ben Carson at 10%, Rand Paul at 9%, Ted Cruz at 9%, Jeb Bush at 8%, Marco Rubio at 7% and Mike Huckabee at 5%.

Said pollster Peter Brown: “Those who thought the Republican race in the Iowa caucuses might begin to clarify itself better think again. As even more candidates toss their hats into the ring, the race has gotten even more muddled.”

A new Morning Consult Poll in Iowa finds Scott Walker leading the GOP field with 18%, followed by Jeb Bush, Mike Huckabee and Rand Paul at 10%. They are followed by Marco Rubio at 7%, Chris Christie at 6%, and Ben Carson and Donald Trump at 5%.

“The Iowa Straw Poll is dead, leaving a heavier burden on winnowing an oversized GOP presidential field on Iowans who will cast the nation’s first votes in February in the caucuses,” the Des Moines Register reports.

“The governing board for the Republican Party of Iowa voted unanimously Friday to cancel the straw poll, a milestone on the path to the White House that had passed the strategic tipping point. It was no longer a political risk for presidential campaigns to walk away from the straw poll, and too many of the 2016 contenders had opted to skip it for it to survive.”

“Friday could be the day the Iowa Straw Poll dies. The governing board for the Republican Party of Iowa will revisit going forward with the event during a conference call Friday morning, as some party officials resign themselves to the view that the much-criticized party fundraiser could potentially damage Iowa’s first-in-the-nation caucuses,” GOP insiders told the Des Moines Register.

Politico: “It’s a newly created political event, hosted by a first-year senator who’s barely known outside her state. Yet seven presidential candidates and the national media horde has descended on this rural town 45 minutes from Des Moines because the significance of the first annual ‘Joni Ernst’s Roast and Ride’ is already clear: amid great uncertainty about which White House hopefuls will choose to compete in the state GOP’s embattled straw poll in August, this could end up being one of Iowa’s most important retail politicking events of the year.”

A new Gravis Marketing survey in Iowa finds Scott Walker leading the GOP presidential field with 17%, followed by Marco Rubio at 13%, Ben Carson at 12%, Jeb Bush at 10%, Mike Huckabee at 8%, Ted Cruz at 6%, Rick Santorum at 6%, Carly Fiorina at 5%, Rand Paul at 4% and Chris Chrsitie at 4%.

In the Democratic race, Hillary Clinton is way ahead at 59%, followed by Bernie Sanders at 15%.

“Republican presidential candidates who skip the Iowa Straw Poll in August aren’t likely to pay much of a price for their decisions. Only 51% of likely Republican caucus-goers in the latest Bloomberg Politics/Des Moines Register Iowa Poll say they think it’s important for a candidate to attend the party fundraiser, a customary marker in the run-up to the Iowa caucuses.”

Des Moines Register/Bloomberg Poll: “Scott Walker’s popularity streak in Iowa is real: He’s seven percentage points ahead of his nearest competition in the presidential horse race here, chased by a tight pack of four in a clear top tier: Ben Carson, Rand Paul, Jeb Bush and Mike Huckabee.”

“Marco Rubio lags in a single-digit scrum, but a deeper look into the numbers shows that if Walker is the hare in Iowa, Rubio may be the tortoise, potentially positioned to pull ahead if he campaigns hard.”

“When Republican officials in Iowa convened a planning session Thursday for their quadrennial presidential straw poll, only a handful of advisers to GOP contenders bothered to show up,” the Washington Post reports.

“The sparse attendance and lack of enthusiasm, even from those who came, was worrying to state party brass: The straw poll — a carnival-like organizing ritual that has in past years winnowed the candidate field and marked the start of caucus season — has faded into irrelevance.”