GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul is barreling into Iowa and New Hampshire with surprising strength as the first 2012 presidential contests approach - a position that comes, in part, from the unconventional ground games and fundraising strategies being waged by impassioned supporters like Alex Beltramo.

Beltramo, 44, a San Francisco game developer, recently unveiled his plan to raise money for the Texas congressman by donating $5 to the Paul campaign for every player who slays a dragon - no kidding - in his online game called "Dungeoneers."

So far, 1,000 supporters have done the deed, and Beltramo said he hopes to raise as much as $25,000 with fellow dragon-slaying Paul fans.

"For a long time, the media perception was that (Ron Paul) was extreme or kooky, and they didn't want to talk about him," said Beltramo, a longtime independent voter who is changing his registration to Republican to cast his ballot for Paul in California's June primary.

"I really like that he understands the economy and, in terms of foreign policy, he is the only one who is not wearing blinders regarding the costs of the military," Beltramo said. "Newt Gingrich calls himself a historian, but Ron Paul is the only one who learns from history."

Surging at the right time

With just days until Iowans hit their Jan. 3 caucuses and New Hampshire holds its primary Jan. 10, the efforts by grassroots supporters like Beltramo are forcing pundits to recalculate the political landscape. Paul has surged to the front of the GOP pack in Iowa and has advanced against Romney's lead in New Hampshire.

"What are Republican primary voters looking for? Consistency," said Democratic pollster Ben Tulchin of San Francisco, as he surveys the field of GOP front-runners that has shifted from former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney to Rep. Michele Bachmann to Texas Gov. Rick Perry to business mogul Herman Cain and lately to former House Speaker Gingrich.

Now it is Paul's turn at the top - a position that Tulchin said isn't so surprising, especially with his appeal to the growing ranks of independent or decline-to-state voters.

Paul's loyal followers - many of them young and independent-minded like Beltramo - are drawn to their candidate as the rare politician who can be counted on to give unvarnished, even potentially unpopular, answers to questions, Tulchin says.

Appeal to independents

Libertarian-leaning voters particularly celebrate that Paul "speaks truth to power," appears to stand against big government and government spending, and is outspoken in opposition to foreign wars and interventions, he said.

Tulchin's latest poll shows that independent voters in California are generally "younger, they're college educated ... and there's less adherence and allegiance to mainstream institutions and parties."

That's why Paul appears to be resonating with them, Tulchin said.

"He was the Tea Party movement before there was a Tea Party movement," Tulchin said. "Ron Paul has been consistent, sometimes in a wacky way ... so the press has been outright dismissive of the guy from the start. But his poll numbers have been good."

John Dennis, a 2010 GOP congressional candidate in San Francisco who ran against Rep. Nancy Pelosi, has become a major organizer in Paul's campaign. Dennis said the campaign and its grassroots followers learned critical lessons since 2008, when Paul also ran for president.

Dennis said that during the previous campaign, 600 precincts in Iowa had no Paul representation at the caucuses - a factor that he said cost votes in a process where Iowans turn out to schools and community centers to hear candidates' campaign pitches before they make their preferences known.

Lessons from 2008

This year, Dennis has helped organize an aggressive program to attract Paul supporters from around the country, which he says will allow them to represent and advocate for the candidate on caucus night more effectively.

"We're making sure there's not one of the 1,785 precincts" that will be without Paul backers on Jan. 3 - and many of them have now been trained by speech coaches on how to hone their pitches to voters, he said.

He said the efforts make Paul supporters "cautiously optimistic" about the potential outcome.

"There's a lot of time between now and then, and Ron can be attacked," Dennis said. But "he's running to win."

The Paul campaign has also gotten a boost from independent groups like the pro-Paul Revolution PAC.

The PAC's creative fundraising efforts include offbeat efforts like the "Super Brochure" campaign, which offers Paul supporters the opportunity to underwrite the mailing of brochures about their candidate for 55 cents each to voters in the state and county of their choice - in essence, allowing them to determine how much they want to spend when they target their message.

Beltramo, hoping to persuade more gamers to "Slay a Dragon" for Ron Paul, said all the efforts are finally getting the media to take notice.

"For many months, the Ron Paul movement has been newsworthy - whether or not you think he's going to win," he said. "But the fact that you have this many people who are this enthusiastic is historic."