Here are a few of last week's nuggets from the campaigns of Minnesota's two presidential candidates:
• As former Gov. Tim Pawlenty's campaign announced it was yanking its Iowa TV ads a few days before the GOP straw poll in Ames next weekend, U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann was ramping up her ad buy.
She uncorked her third TV ad, declaring at "politicians are looting the treasury." This one features her talking directly to the camera from Ames and has her defending her vote against the debt-ceiling bill. And she makes a direct pitch for folks to show up at the poll and vote for her.
• The fourth anniversary of the Interstate 35W bridge collapse in Minneapolis Monday included the unveiling of a new memorial honoring those who died in the tragedy.
But the gathering did not include Pawlenty, who was in office when the collapse occurred and whose administration took heavy criticism in its aftermath.
Alex Conant, a spokesman for Pawlenty, told a reporter that Pawlenty was scheduled to be in Florida on Monday and Tuesday. The Tampa Tribune reported that the former Minnesota governor was on a two-day fundraising tour in that state.
Conant did not respond to a message asking whether the former governor thought about attending the ceremony.
• Presidential candidate Jon Huntsman has been getting flak for days for saying that Bachmann "makes for good copy -- and good photography."
