Once again, it’s happening in Florida.

When Herman Cain rose to the top of the polls, it was after he beat Rick Perry and Mitt Romney to an unexpected victory at Florida’s Presidency 5 straw poll. And now, as Newt Gingrich surged nationally this week, a trio of polls from Florida showing Gingrich’s support ranging from 41 to 50 percent indicated that his lead wasn’t just a national phenomenon, but one that could translate into similar levels of support in early primary states.

One Florida GOP strategist thinks that the Romney campaign should take Gingrich’s Florida poll numbers seriously. “The Romney people have largely taken Florida for granted,” the strategist remarks. “To the degree that they pay any attention to Florida, it feels like they’re running a general election campaign there as opposed to fighting for the nomination. So, while I don’t think that these poll numbers mean a whole lot in terms of any imminent danger for Romney, I do think they should be a red flag and an alarm in Boston that Republican primary voters in Florida are fickle creatures who shouldn’t be taken for granted.”

But the polls bring challenges to Gingrich, too.

“I think these polls are going to bring a huge amount of attention and scrutiny and money and stress and strain to the Gingrich campaign and we’ll see how handles it,” the strategist notes.