Republican race tightens as Pawlenty bows out

Bachmann now faces a stiff challenge from former Massachusetts governor and longtime front-runner Mitt Romney, considered more moderate, and from Rick Perry, who has served as Texas governor for over a decade and can claim to have created jobs despite the economic slowdown.

Pawlenty\'s decision came after his distant third-place showing in the poll and Perry\'s entry into the race as a fiscal and social conservative champion.

The Ames Straw Poll is unscientific and nonbinding but widely seen as an indicator of who is best positioned to win the first batch of nominating contests early next year.

Pawlenty, who had campaigned hard in Iowa, told ABC television\'s "This Week" that his message "didn\'t get the kind of traction or lift that we needed and hoped for" going into the poll.

He finished with a disappointing 2,293 votes in the Ames Straw Poll, over 2,500 votes behind Bachmann and close second-place finisher Representative Ron Paul, a small government advocate who also has strong Tea Party support.

The low-key Pawlenty -- derided by detractors as bland -- was little known outside of Minnesota despite serving two terms as Republican governor of a largely Democratic state.

Bachmann, also appearing on "This Week," said her win was a "big message sent to Washington" by Americans frustrated with the slow pace of economic recovery and stubbornly high unemployment under President Barack Obama.

She also pushed back against critics who say she is too radical, saying: "There isn\'t an event that I do that I don\'t have people come up to me who say: \'Michele, I\'m a Democrat and I\'m voting for you, I\'m an Independent and I\'m voting for you.\'

"And I think it\'s because I\'m talking about what people really care about, and that\'s turning the economy around and job creation," she added.

Perry, who announced his candidacy while the Iowa poll was under way, managed to garner 718 votes as a write-in candidate, more than the 567 that went to Romney, who was listed on the ballot.

The Texas governor, who succeeded George W. Bush in 2000 and has strong support among the Christian right, has vowed to put Americans back to work and assailed Obama on the economy, where the president is most vulnerable.

"We cannot and must not endure four more years of rising unemployment, rising taxes, rising debt, rising energy dependence on nations that intend us harm," Perry said, as he announced his candidacy in South Carolina.

The governor has touted his "Texas miracle," in which the state has led the nation in creating jobs since the 2008 recession, while the nationwide unemployment rate has hovered above nine percent.

Perry also has strong credentials as a social conservative, and earlier this month held a prayer rally attended by more than 30,000 people.

Critics say, however, that the jobs created in Texas have been mainly low-paying, and have come as a result of deregulation and painful cuts in social spending.

"Middle class families know his economic record is no miracle -- it\'s a tall tale," Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt said Saturday.

"Governor Perry allowed special interests to write their own rules, hired corporate lobbyists to oversee corporations, and cut funding for programs that would create opportunity for middle class families."

Multi-millionaire Romney has been making the most of his private sector experience on the stump, but faces lingering skepticism from core Republican voters for past moderate views on issues like health care and climate change.

Perry has been snapping at Romney\'s heels in opinion polls of Republicans over the past few months despite not being in the race, amid widespread discontent with the party\'s crop of candidates.

Some Democratic leaders spent the day in Iowa meeting with party activists and the media as they portrayed the Republican candidates as extremists beholden to the Tea Party and accusing them of poisoning American politics.

Part of the ammunition Democrats used to show proof of extremism was the Republican presidential debate held in Ames Thursday.

Republicans offered complete resistance to allowing tax breaks to expire for the wealthiest Americans and corporations, leaving the repayment of US debt on the backs of middle- and low-income families, they said.

© Copyright AFP Agence France-Presse GmbH - All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or distributed. All reproduction or redistribution is expressly forbidden without the prior written agreement of AFP.