Two Minnesotans to Battle for Prez Nomination

Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty already has declared his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination, and Rep. Michele Bachmann is likely to do so soon. Each of them says there’s room for both in the campaign. But it’s unlikely that’s how they really feel, Politico reports.

They represent different factions of the Republican Party. When Pawlenty, then state House majority leader, ran for governor in 2002, Bachmann, then a first-term state senator, supported a more conservative candidate.

Pawlenty and Bachmann clashed over plenty of state issues, including tax breaks for rural counties, education policy and cigarette taxes.

“She gets frustrated with Tim, that he’s not as much ‘charge from the seat of your pants,’ and Tim looks at Michele and thinks she’s too seat of her pants,” former Bachmann chief of staff Ron Carey told Politico. “There’s a little natural tension simply because of style, not of desired outcome.”