Pawlenty campaign was likely broke, report suggests

Considering that former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty vowed to continue his 2012 presidential campaign regardless of the results of the Iowa Straw Poll, it was a bit of a surprise when he called it quits the day after he finished third place.

But the Huffington Post’s Sam Stein reports that money may have been the deciding factor in his decision to drop out of the race. Anonymous Republicans told Stein that the campaign may be in debt up to $500,000, although other sources said that figure was exaggerated.

Other former Pawlenty supporters confirmed that there was a financial motive to Pawlenty’s withdrawal from the race.

“If there was any mistake, we should have not put as much emphasis on the Iowa straw poll and had a plan that would have carried us through to January, but that became financially impossible,” former congressman and Pawlenty backer Vin Weber told MinnPost‘s Devin Henry in an interview published Monday. Weber is now supporting former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

The Pawlenty campaign doesn’t need to disclose how much it spent in the last few months until Oct. 15, but by July, the campaign managed to raise almost $4.5 million, according to records from the Federal Election Commission. In the three months covered by the July quarterly disclosure filing (a period ending on June 30), Pawlenty spent about $2.5 million, leaving $2 million in the bank.

Pawlenty has yet to endorse another candidate.