Free Republic

A recount of the Jan. 3 Iowa Republican caucus results has Rick Santorum leading Mitt Romney in the race for the GOP presidential nomination by 34 votes, with data from 8 precincts missing and never to be certified, GOP officials told The Des Moines Register on Wednesday. Despite Santorum's advantage, the state Republican party views the results as a wash.

Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann's campaign lost another high-ranking staff member on Thursday after that staffer defended another former Bachmann official's defection to a rival campaign. Wes Enos, Bachmann's political director, has left the campaign, spokeswoman Alice Stewart confirmed to NBC News on Thursday evening. The resignation comes on the heels of last night's announcement by Iowa state Sen. Kent Sorenson, who had served as Bachmann's Iowa chairman, that he had stepped down from that position to support Texas Rep. Ron Paul's campaign instead. Yesterday, Enos publicly defended Sorenson, an Iowa state Senator, against charges voiced by Bachmann that Sorenson had...

By now you probably already know that Michele Bachmann’s Iowa campaign chair, Kent Sorenson, suddenly turned round and endorsed Ron Paul last night. And I have to tell you, I’m disgusted. I know Kent Sorenson. We have each other’s private phone numbers and I also have to tell you that I texted him last night and for the first time ever, he has not returned my text. I have left him voicemail — no return call. ... Did he originally back Bachmann because he thought she could win? What does this say about him? ... The campaigns in question don’t...

Breaking: Michele Bachmann Iowa campaign co-chair endorses Ron Paul

GOP presidential hopefuls Rick Perry and Rick Santorum will join Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) on a pheasant hunting trip this weekend in Iowa, according to a report in the Des Moines Register. The trio will be at the Loess Hills Hunting Preserve for the annual Col. Bud Day Pheasant Hunt, which is hosted by King. Perry will hunt with the congressman on Saturday, while Santorum will join him on Sunday, according to the candidates' campaign schedules. Perry and Santorum, who will be looking to bolster their conservative bona fides on the weekend campaign swings through the early voting state, would...

The bad news for Perry fans? The group behind this poll is Make Us Great Again, a super PAC formed to benefit — ta da — Rick Perry. The good news? Their numbers are in line with the latest Iowa polls from left-leaning PPP (which has it Perry 21, Romney 18, Bachmann 15) and right-leaning Magellan (Perry 24, Bachmann 22, Romney 19). Read the fine print and the news gets even better: The poll also shows Perry leading the way when respondents were asked to name the candidate they felt would be best at creating jobs and improving the country’s...

A Minnesota congresswoman was the first choice for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination among Plymouth County fairgoers. The Plymouth County GOP conducted an informal poll of visitors to the party's booth at the fair last week, according to county GOP co-chairman Don Kass. Michele Bachmann received 22 percent of the vote from 380 people filling out the postcard-sized fair poll, Kass reported. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney was the second place choice with 19 percent support. Ron Paul rounded out the top three with 15 percent of fairgoers' votes.

A group of Republican activists in Iowa were attempting to sort out a frontrunner for this early caucus state, when non could be found. They asked numerous Republican primary voters about each speculated candidate and this is what they said: Mike Huckabee: Most felt that Huckabee was likable, jovial, and down to earth. Almost every person in the suburban Des Moines group offered positive words for Huckabee until Becky Ervin, who works in human resources, said, “I love the guy, but he’s not tough enough.” That prompted some revisionism around the room. One person question his toughness to handle national...