Iowa committee shelves complaint tied to Bachmann campaign

An Iowa state Senate committee has voted against pursuing a complaint alleging a senator took improper payments from Michele Bachmann's presidential campaign.

The ethics committee voted Wednesday to take no action unless more information emerges about the complaint filed by a former Bachmann aide. One committee member says it's up to the staffer who filed the complaint to provide more information. The Associated Press reports one senator argued unsuccessfully for the committee to refer the case to a court-appointed investigator.

Peter Waldron, the national field coordinator for the Minnesota Congresswoman's presidential campaign, claimed last month that the campaign funneled payments of $7,500 a month to Sen. Kent Sorenson. If true, that would violate the Senate's ethics rules, which ban paid employment with political campaigns.

Sorenson initially declined to talk about the complaint, but this week issued a statement calling it false and absurd.

Bachmann dropped her bid for the Republican presidential nomination last January, soon after finishing last among the six candidates who competed in the party's Iowa caucuses.