Bachmann’s former campaign manager says Republican is ‘out of money and ideas’

On the campaign trail with Felicia Sonmez

First a tea party leader urges her to drop out of the presidential race, and now Michele Bachmann’s former campaign campaign manager says her operation is likely dead-on-arrival in Iowa next year and “out of money and ideas.”

Ed Rollins, who left the Bachmann campaign in September, and has been on something of a truth-telling tour since his departure, said in an interview with ABC News that his former boss is “still saying the same things she said in the first the debate.”
SAN FRANCISCO, CA - OCTOBER 20: U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) and Republican candidate for president speaks at the Commonwealth Club of California on October 20, 2011. (Justin Sullivan - GETTY IMAGES) “There’s no substance. She says, ‘I’m going to repeal Obamacare.’ But she’s been saying that from Day 1,” Rollins said. “I told her: That’s your Tea Party speech, now you have to say what you’re going to do next.”

The Bachmann campaign has been on a downward trajectory since a first place win in the Iowa Straw poll, but activists on the ground there complained that she squandered that victory by not spending more time in the state. The latest Iowa poll found her winning just 8 percent of the vote in that state.

The Minnesota congresswoman has a busy week ahead this week in Iowa, where the centerpiece of her schedule comes Thursday when she is scheduled to make an economic policy address in Ames.

Since then, she’s seen her poll numbers plummet in the state where she was born, even as her campaign lowers expectations. Her attention to Iowa, long considered a must-win state for Bachmann, has ruffled feathers in New Hampshire, where a slew of top staffers resigned over Bachmann’s focus on Iowa rather than the Granite State.

Keith Nahigian, who replaced Rollins as Bachmann’s campaign manager later confirmed that Iowa remains the focus of his candidate’s strategy. But the congresswoman later said that she is also concentrating on all of the early states

On Monday, Bachmann released a roster of 64 grassroots activists , who will be key to organizing for the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses.

“The caucuses are won precinct-by-precinct with neighbors talking to neighbors, friends talking to friends. These supporters, like others around the state, are already working hard on Michele Bachmann’s behalf to bring home a victory,” said state Sen. Kent Sorenson, Bachmann’s state chairman. “Southeast Iowa proved to be an important region in the 2008 caucuses and the same will be true in 2012.”

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