Pawlenty poaches staff; Romney gets burned popcorn

Fire alarms for front-runner Mitt Romney? In a Republican presidential contest that some view as an evolving showdown between Romney and Tim Pawlenty, the Minnesota Republican has just poached one off the old Romney campaign. With the former Massachusetts governor in Iowa today, Pawlenty announced that his presidential campaign has signed Nicole Schlinger, the Straw Poll Director for Romney's victorious 2007 Iowa Presidential Straw Poll campaign. "She knows the ride called the Iowa caucuses as well as anyone in the country," Pawlenty said in a prepared statement this afternoon. Pawlenty's people, and others, say Schlinger is the most prolific political fundraiser in Iowa Republican history for candidates ranging from city council members to governors. A big get. A former finance director of the Iowa Republican Party, Schlinger now joins a brain trust that includes Eric Woolson, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee's victorious 2008 Iowa campaign manager in 2008. With fellow Minnesota Republican Michele Bachmann also in Iowa, where she is expected to announce her bid for the presidency next month, Pawlenty continues to beef up his staff there. In all, this might not have been Romney's best day in the GOP nomination race. One of his appearances in Iowa was ended by a fire alarm 27 minutes into his speech. Political intrigue? Organizers blamed burned popcorn. Now this, courtesy of the Des Moines Register: