Michele Bachmann loses New Hampshire campaign staff

Yet another Republican presidential hopeful seems to have a one-state strategy. Michele Bachmann’s entire paid staff in New Hampshire has quit the campaign, which is increasingly focusing all of its resources on a victory in the Iowa caucuses.

WMUR-TV in Manchester, N.H., first reported the departure of Bachmann’s six officials, who left “over deep frustration with the campaign’s lack of commitment” to the state.

The Minnesota congresswoman had already been heavily focused on the Hawkeye State, and the loss of what little New Hampshire operation she had only clarifies her strategy.

Bachmann actually used a debate in New Hampshire to formally announce her candidacy. She immediately shot up in national polls, and the move carried her to a victory in the Iowa Republican straw poll in Ames in August.

But the entrance that weekend of Texas Gov. Rick Perry to the presidential field quickly robbed her campaign of oxygen. She spent heavily to win the straw poll and entered the fourth quarter with only $1.5 million cash on hand and more than half a million dollars in debt.

Bachmann was last in the Granite State for the Bloomberg/Washington Post debate last week, and an address to the Legislature the following morning. Her campaign contacted the New Hampshire secretary of state’s office this week to inform officials she would be filing her declaration-of-candidacy form by mail, and not in person as most campaigns typically do.

Bachmann peaked at 12% in a July WMUR Granite State poll of potential New Hampshire Republican primary voters, but sank to just 2% in the most recent survey, conducted from Sept. 26 to Oct. 6.