Mitt Romney is poised to launch his campaign in Iowa on June 2 — but interestingly enough, he’s still not firmly committed to being in the state for its first major contest, the state GOP’s non-binding straw poll in August.
The Des Moines Register reports:
Massachusetts Republican Mitt Romney said in Ankeny this morning he’s not sure yet if he’ll be in Ames for the Iowa straw poll in August.
But once he officially announces his bid for the White House next week, he’ll talk about it with his strategy team.
At the same time, Romney confirmed his commitment to the state as a whole, explaining: “but I’m here and I hope that I will be able to build on the good will from a number of my friends from the last time around and hopefully add some new friends.”
Back in August 2007, Romney won the Iowa straw poll, but only with a plurality of 31.6%, followed by Mike Huckabee with 18.1%. (And three other big names at the time — John McCain, Rudy Giuliani and Fred Thompson — were not actively competing in the poll.) By the time the caucus itself rolled around in early January 2008, Mike Huckabee won the state with 34% to Romney’s 25%.
As the New York Times reported this morning, Romney has been running a much more low-key operation in Iowa this time around, and determining to what extent they should compete there compared to other states — after his 2008 campaign had spent $10 million in the state, only to lose the caucus.
