Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) is having a really, really bad week. Her once high-flying presidential campaign has been steadily losing ground since August, and has not significantly benefitted from the serial disasters afflicting Rick Perry, Herman Cain, and most recently (in Iowa at least) Newt Gingrich. She’s spent the majority of the campaign in her native state of Iowa, yet the latest poll there (from CNN/Time/ORC) shows her slipping to sixth place, even as she pointlessly races around the state trying to redeem a pledge to touch ground in all 99 counties. Her closest friend in Congress, nativist chieftain Steve King, won’t endorse her. Her closest ideological rival Rick Santorum has been picking up endorsements and steam.
And now her Iowa campaign manager has abandoned her without so much as a “goodbye,” report HuffPo’s Jon Ward and Elise Foley:
Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) accused her former Iowa campaign chairman of accepting money to jump ship to support Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) on Wednesday, issuing a terse statement within two hours of his announcement.
Kent Sorenson, the Iowa state senator who served in the Bachmann campaign, denied the allegations and said he accepted no money for his endorsement. Sorenson is “leaving his post as Iowa chairman for U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann’s presidential campaign here,” according to a statement from the Paul campaign. “The resignation and endorsement take effect immediately.”
Sorenson said he did not tell the Bachmann campaign before he announced his endorsement of Paul, and appeared at one of her events earlier on Wednesday. He told HuffPost late Wednesday that his decision was made only 10 minutes before he took the stage at a Paul rally in Des Moines to say he would support Paul instead of Bachmann.
Ouchy ouchy.
