Pawlenty has endorsed Mitt Romney for the GOP nomination and is scheduled to host a Twin Cities fundraiser for the former Massachusetts governor next month.
Rep. Michele Bachmann’s announcement last week that she’s mulling the idea of becoming a potential contender for the GOP nomination for president in 2012 has brought about a new round of fact-checking her statements this week. PolitiFact gave her a “Pants on Fire” rating on Tuesday, while Poligraph gave her an “inconclusive” on Wednesday. A member of Congress even used committee testimony this week to try and debunk one of her more frequent claims.
Rep. Michele Bachmann took Iowa by storm last week, making a series of media appearances and fundraising events and hitting on a common theme: “I am an Iowan.” She talked about taking Iowa’s money back home from the feds, about bringing jobs to Iowa and protecting Iowa’s quality public schools from the Department of Education. The district she represents north of the Twin Cities or the state in which it is contained went largely unmentioned over the course of the week.
Three of Rep. Michele Bachmann’s former staffers are backing her fellow Minnesotan and presumptive competitor for the 2012 Republican nomination, Tim Pawlenty. Ron Carey, who served as Bachmann’s chief of staff in 2010; Gina Countryman, Bachmann’s 2010 congressional campaign manager; and Tim Gould, who served as Bachmann’s Constituent Services Officer in 2010 are all vocally supporting Pawlenty for 2012.
Potential presidential candidate Newt Gingrich and his wife will be in Minneapolis in May to present their film “Rediscovering God in America,” a Citizens United production. The event is hosted by the Minnesota Family Council, according to an event listing on the Newt Gingrich’s campaign website. The film recounts Gingrich’s assertion that the founding fathers envisioned a religious United States and decries secularism.
Rep. Michele Bachmann made her debut in New Hampshire with a series five appearances on Friday and Saturday as part of her “all in for 2012″ tour. At one stop, a troop of AIDS activists crashed her speech and a gaffe on U.S. history put Bachmann’s visit in the headlines.
In Florida on Friday, Rep. Michele Bachmann told the Palm Beach Post that she’s been traveling the country to gauge national support if she decides to run for president and that she’s gotten a “fantastic reception” from activists in Iowa and South Carolina. Political prognosticators have also started to pay attention to Bachmann as a potential contender for the 2012 Republican nomination.
In his latest Hollywood-style, highly produced YouTube video, Tim Pawlenty attempts to court the tea party movement. The former governor, whose potential campaign for the GOP nomination in 2012 has remained in the single digits in polls of Republican voters, calls the tea party “A New Birth of Freedom.” The spot concludes with a clip from Pawlenty’s weekend speech to the tea party summit in Arizona.
The Abacoa Golf Club in Jupiter, Fla., will be host to Rep. Michele Bachmann on March 4 as she meets with local tea party groups, Florida media outlets are reporting. The trip to Florida is among many that the possible presidential contender has planned for the spring, including trips to New Hampshire, Iowa and New Orleans. Bachmann has just come off trips to Iowa, Montana and South Carolina.
Minnesota’s two potential presidential candidates have weighed in on President Barack Obama’s decision to halt his administration’s defense of the federal ban on same-sex marriage. Obama’s office says part of the law may be unconstitutional, but Tim Pawenty said he was “disappointed” by the news and Rep. Michele Bachmann took the opportunity to raise money.
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