In an embarrassing blow to an already failing campaign, Michele Bachmann‘s Iowa campaign chairman announced on Wednesday that he is now supporting Ron Paul. State Senator Kent Sorenson made the announcement at a Paul rally, just hours after appearing at a Bachmann event.

Explaining his actions, Sorenson emphasized his desire to defend Dr. Paul from the “recent smears from the media and the national political establishment”, saying Paul stood by him during Sorenson’s state senate campaign.

However, Sorenson also acknowledges ideological and strategic motives, saying he now believes Paul “is the candidate for true pro-life, pro-gun, pro-limited government conservatives”, who “is the one candidate who can take on [and] defeat both Mitt Romney and Barack Obama.”

In response, Bachmann claimed that Sorenson himself had said he was “he was offered a large sum of money to go to work for the Paul campaign.” Sorenson and the Paul campaign have both strongly denied this claim.

Reports have also surfaced that a high-ranking Bachmann aide who publicly defended Sorenson was fired.

Just four months ago, Bachmann won the Ames (Iowa) straw poll, and seemed poised to sweep the caucus in the state where she was raised. Now, she is polling in the single digits in Iowa, and even worse nationally.

What do you think? Can Bachmann’s campaign survive a bad showing in Iowa?

[Photo via MPR/Jeffery Thompson]

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