Just when you thought the contest for the 2012 presidential nomination couldn’t get any stranger and more entertaining (for us Democrats), Michele Bachmann’s Iowa campaign chairman defected to Ron Paul’s campaign– four hours after attending a Bachmann event, where “he declined to speak to the crowd, citing dental work.”
Paul’s campaign touted the endorsement in a press release, saying that [Kent] Sorenson’s resignation from Bachmann’s team was effective immediately.
“Kent is an old friend,” said Paul campaign manager Jesse Benton. “We had talked seriously about it with him for several days. He said he has come to realize that this is a two-person race” and that “Ron is the only conservative alternative to Romney and the establishment status quo.”
Bachmann responded with her own statement claiming Sorenson defected for financial reasons and naming state Rep. Brad Zaun as her new state chair.
“Kent Sorenson personally told me he was offered a large sum of money to go to work for the Paul campaign,” Bachmann told reporters. “Kent said to me yesterday that ‘everyone sells out in Iowa, why shouldn’t I,’ then he told me he would stay with our campaign. The Ron Paul campaign has to answer for its actions.”
Benton responded that the Paul campaign is not paying Sorenson.
I don’t know whom to believe, but I don’t understand why Bachmann is so upset. She claims to be a staunch supporter of the free market. If Sorenson did defect for money, that’s the free market in action.