Bachmann limps to finish line in Iowa

Associated Press

FORT DODGE, Iowa

Encountering small crowds and fresh viability questions, Republican Michele Bachmann slogged into the final weekend of Iowa caucus campaigning Friday looking for any spark to her flagging bid.

The closing week hasn’t been kind to the one-time GOP contender: She’s losing staff. She’s faced calls to abandon her bid. And she has no money.

The difficulties were evident in two restaurant stops where reporters outnumbered patrons. She got a warm welcome later on in Fort Dodge, where she popped in unannounced on a Iowa State football- watching party at a sports bar.

“Our effort wasn’t to bring crowds out. We were just dropping in,” she said outside a caf in Early.

The Minnesota congresswoman is at the back of the pack in polls. But she vows to soldier on, even if that means her candidacy will split the vote of pivotal conservatives in Iowa and allow for victories by a candidate who isn’t seen as adhering as strongly to GOP orthodoxy — such as Mitt Romney or Ron Paul.

Regarded as a tea-party heroine, the only woman in the Republican race has struggled to revive her campaign since her standing dropped shortly after she won a statewide test vote in Iowa. That turned out to be the high point of her campaign.

Iowa Rep. Steve King, one of Bachmann’s closest allies in Congress, came to one of Friday’s events. He praised her but he stopped short of an outright endorsement in a race that’s so far kept him neutral.