Michele Bachmann

Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann isn’t backing away from her account of the departure of her Iowa campaign chairman. 

“He had told me specifically that he was offered money, a great deal of money, from the Ron Paul campaign and that’s why he was leaving,” Bachmann said this morning.  (Listen to news conference here.)

State Senator Kent Sorenson had been Bachmann’s campaign chairman for the past year, but made the surprise announcement last night at a Ron Paul rally, saying he is now backing Ron Paul in the final days of the Caucus campaign.

“Yesterday I was with Kent Sorenson. He talked to a number of people on our campaign. He told a number of people on our campaign — there’s a list an arm long of people that he spoke to who said he apologized to me for considering leaving. He said that he would be staying,” Bachmann said. “He was with me at our campaign stop in Indianola. He told all of our campaign that he was definitely on board and then he got in his car and he went and announced that he was going with the Ron Paul campaign.”

Bachmann suggests the Ron Paul campaign is “nervous” because they’re “losing steam” in Iowa, and that’s why they made the play for Bachmann’s backer.

“They were losing momentum in Iowa because Iowans’ eyes were opening up,” Bachmann said. “They understood not only was Ron Paul dangerous when it came to foreign policy, but they’re understanding now that Ron Paul would be willing to legalize drugs in the United States, including heroin and cocaine. Iowans don’t want that.”

Bachmann made her comments moments ago during a news conference in Des Moines and reporters asked how much money Sorenson had been offered. She declined to cite a specific number, suggesting reporters ask Paul’s campaign that question. 

A Paul campaign spokesman denied last night that Sorenson was being paid.

“We’ve always known Michele Bachmann to be an honorable person and we think it’s a shame now that she’s trying to slander an honorable Iowan and an honorable member of the Iowa state senate. Senator Sorenson is not being paid,” Jesse Benton, Paul’s campaign spokesman, told Radio Iowa last night. 

Bachmann’s Iowa political director also issued a written statement — under Ron Paul campaign letterhead — saying Sorenson wasn’t being paid. It’s unclear whether that campaign staffer is still with Bachmann either.

Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich is touting an endorsement from an economist who helped Ronald Reagan develop so-called “supply side” economics.

Earlier this fall economist Arthur Laffer praised former GOP candidate Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 tax plan, but Laffer now says Gingrich has the “best plan” for the jobs and the economy of any candidate currently in the field. Gingrich talked about Laffer last night in Le Mars.

“I come out of a background starting in the late 1970s of working with Jack Kemp and Art Laffer and…a whole range of economists to develop a model called supply side economics that says if you cut taxes and you cut regulations and you develop American energy and you encourage the people who create jobs, you have dramatic economic growth,” Gingrich said.

Gingrich said that approach is at odds with President Obama’s economic vision.

“The other team comes out of a background of government control, government domination and the president’s probably the worst example of this in modern times,” Gingrich said in Le Mars. “He really believes in a big government model where you raise taxes, increase regulations, are anti-American energy and attack the people who create jobs through class warfare.”

Gingrich is campaigning in Sioux City this morning and plans stops in Storm Lake, Denison and Carroll this afternoon.

(Additional reporting by Dennis Morrice, KLEM, Le Mars)