Romney watches for new Iowa opportunities

Associated Press

DES MOINES, Iowa

The accelerating GOP presidential campaigns in Iowa probably will define front-runner Mitt Romney’s chief challengers over the next six weeks and could force the former Massachusetts governor to reconsider his decision to mount only modest efforts in this early voting state.

Rep. Michele Bachmann’s quick rise in popularity in the leadoff caucus state and former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s stubbornly low poll numbers after more than a year of groundwork in Iowa give Romney new opportunities in the state where he has worked to lower expectations in his second campaign.

Romney may stick with his plan to tread lightly in Iowa and look to New Hampshire’s leadoff primary for a liftoff in 2012 if there is no opening for him to seize as a consensus choice.

But Romney’s healthy fundraising, with as much as $20 million in the three-month reporting period that ended last week, and his lead in national polls give him flexibility his less-known rivals lack and make it possible for him to wait to see how the chips fall in Iowa this summer, and decide later whether to up his ante.

“I think it’s awfully hard for me at this stage to predict where we’ll spend all our time and devote all our resources,” Romney told The Associated Press last week. “But we’re focused on running our race, where we think best.”

Minnesota’s Bachmann was on her first sustained Iowa campaign trip this weekend. She’s coming off a successful stretch marked by a well-received national debate debut, a widely covered campaign kickoff in her native Iowa and a strong showing in The Des Moines Register’s poll. Bachmann nearly matched Romney, the No. 2 GOP caucus finisher four years ago, for the early Iowa lead in the survey.

Criticized for having little caucus campaign heft on her team, Bachmann has named as her deputy national campaign manager David Polyansky, who’s credited with bringing organizational and strategic weight to the 2008 campaign of caucus winner Mike Huckabee.

Businessman Herman Cain, a tea-party favorite, also will need strong support from this motivated but untested segment of the GOP electorate. Cain, third in the new Iowa poll, was the only other candidate in double digits, with 10 percent. But his campaign organization has suffered some key staffing departures in Iowa.

Former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania has a foothold among social conservatives. He’s looking for a straw-poll breakthrough with help from a top aide to Romney’s 2008 campaign.