Having the governor of the state say the straw poll is no longer useful could give many potential candidates an excuse to skip the rather expensive event. Candidates who may not naturally appeal to the heavily evangelical make up of the event will probably be glad to have another good justification for not wasting money on it.

Pawlenty’s candidacy was very much predicated on winning Iowa, a neighboring state to Minnesota. He hoped the momentum from that early victory would slingshot into other states. He spent months in Iowa and put up the first TV ads of any candidate there. But he never gained traction, either there or nationally.