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Pawlenty on going all-in in Iowa: "That's a decision we made and it was the wrong call"

At the state Capitol to unveil his official gubernatorial portrait, Pawlenty looks back at his aborted presidential campaign

October 11, 2011 at 2:47AM

FILE - In this April 9, 2010, file photo then-Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty , left, gives former Massachusetts. Gov. Mitt Romney a pat on the back at a conservative Freedom Foundation of Minnesota event in Bloomington, Minn. Pawlenty is endorsing Mitt Romney for president. That's the word from Romney's campaign. Pawlenty is a former Minnesota governor who dropped out of the GOP nomination race last month after a poor showing in the Iowa straw poll. (AP Photo/Craig Lassig,File) (Colleen Kelly — ASSOCIATED PRESS - AP/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

After he unveiled his official gubernatorial portrait, Tim Pawlenty governor admitted to some second-guessing about what might have been.

The governor said his calculation in quitting the presidential race the day after a poor third place showing in the August Ames straw poll was simple: "We were out of money."

But since he dropped out, Minnesota U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, who won the Ames straw poll, has seen her polling numbers tank and Texas Gov. Rick Perry has surged and fallen back.

Pawlenty said that he known what the race would become, he would have saved some campaign cash to carry on. Instead, the campaign spent all it had and more — the former governor said he found out after he quit that the campaign was actually in debt — on Iowa.

"That's a decision we made and it was the wrong call," he said.