By KEVIN DIAZ, Minneapolis Star Tribune

Tim Pawlenty and Michele Bachmann, Minnesota Republicans with competing bids for the GOP presidential nomination, ended their quests in debt, according to campaign reports filed Tuesday.

WASHINGTON - Pawlenty, however, got a little help from current GOP front-runner Mitt Romney, who, along with relatives and staffers, contributed more than $65,000 to help the former Minnesota governor chip away

WASHINGTON - Emerging from a failed presidential campaign, Minnesota Republican Michele Bachmann said on Wednesday that she would carry on her political cause by returning to Congress and running for re-election this year.

"I am very thrilled to be in the position that I am today, and I am looking forward to continuing," Bachmann said.

DES MOINES - The last Michele Bachmann saw of her Iowa campaign chairman, Kent Sorenson was standing by quietly in a Pizza Ranch restaurant in Indianola, where her "99-county" bus tour had stopped for a brief rally on Wednesday afternoon.

WASHINGTON - Emerging from a downtown office building last week after a seminal speech on conservative values, U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann stepped into one of her campaign's newest forms of conveyance, a red extended-cab pickup truck.

As her presidential campaign enters a decisive phase, Michele Bachmann is facing new questions about her propensity for gaffes and recurring upheavals among her staff and top advisers.

WASHINGTON - Six former Bachmann staffers said the sudden resignations recently of campaign manager Ed Rollins and deputy David Polyansky reflect her longstanding reluctance to trust the advice of top political h

CHARLESTON, S.C. - CHARLESTON, S.C. --

In her quest to win the White House, Michele Bachmann needs voters like Barbara Bates more than ever.

Bates is a fervent Tea Party movement member on the crucial GOP turf of South Carolina, where Bachmann, a GOP House member from Minnesota, is working to extend her Midwestern Bible Belt appeal.

Iowa has long operated on the assumption that if its voters caucus first presidential candidates will come.

But at Saturday's Republican straw poll in Ames, some of the biggest names in GOP politics will be nowhere to be found. Among the no-shows: Presumptive front-runner Mitt Romney, Tea Party movement maven Sarah Palin, and potential powerhouse-in-waiting Gov. Rick Perry of Texas.

DES MOINES, Iowa - One of the most electrifying moments in Michele Bachmann's quest for the White House came when she took to the pulpit of an evangelical mega-church in this city's suburban edge.

There were no campaign banners, no attacks on President Obama, not even any mention of next month's all-important Republican straw poll in Ames.

WASHINGTON - No more "Minnesota Nice" between presidential hopefuls Michele Bachmann and Tim Pawlenty.

In one of the most intriguing subplots of the 2012 GOP nominating contest, the two Minnesota Republicans have begun trading jabs in Iowa over everything from Bachmann's penchant for gaffes to Pawlenty's conservative credentials.

WASHINGTON - Debuting a sweeping economic plan in Chicago this month, Tim Pawlenty said he could lead the nation to "a better deal" of prosperity and balanced budgets.

"I know government can cut spending," he said, "because I did it in Minnesota."