Thomas Beaumont of the Des Moines Register has the story:

Republican Rudy Giuliani has been stuck for weeks on a key decision in his presidential campaign: whether to compete in the Iowa Republican Party's straw poll in Ames this summer.

The former New York City mayor's top Iowa advisers have encouraged him to take part in the year's marquee national GOP event as part of building what Giuliani has said he hopes will be a winning campaign for the leadoff Iowa caucuses in January.

But the final say belongs to Giuliani, who plans to decide in the coming weeks how the event could benefit or cost him.

The consensus view, laid out by Chuck Laudner, executive director of the Iowa Republican Party, is that "You can't not play in the straw poll and expect to get votes in January."

In a conference call with the Giuliani campaign three weeks ago, Beaumont asked whether Rudy was going to make a significant investment in Ames. Campaign manager Mike DuHaime gave a forceful - but non-committal response - saying, "we are 100% committed to playing in the caucuses. We are 100% focused on winning in Iowa."