DES MOINES, Iowa — A shake-out among fiery conservatives with White House ambitions was always a sure thing. Now it appears the competition among the more establishment-minded GOP candidates for president will end up just as fierce.
With Mitt Romney’s move in the past week toward launching a third run for president, there are three high-profile Republicans from the party’s mainstream suddenly competing for the same group of elite donors and staffing talent, just as the crowded 2016 presidential primary season begins.
And that list — Romney, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush — doesn’t even include a group of Midwestern governors, led by Wisconsin’s Scott Walker, who also fit the mold of accomplished, economic-minded executives driven as much by a pragmatic approach to governing as their conservative ideology.
“We’ve never seen anything remotely like it,” said Rick Wilson, a Florida-based Republican consultant who has advised presidential campaigns. “There’s no analogous situation with three bigfoot characters in the mix.”
The abundance of Republican presidential prospects who put economic policy ahead of social issues comes after GOP congressional leaders succeeded last year in beating back primary challenges from farther-right, Tea Party-affiliated candidates on their way to reclaiming control of the Senate.
It also sets up a potential contest of mainstream Republicans not seen since 2000, when George W. Bush was the favorite in a crowded field, or 1988, when then-Vice President George H.W. Bush was the heavy favorite.
Not one of the ambitious Republicans has formally entered the race yet. But more than a dozen candidates are preparing for what is widely seen as a once-in-a-generation opportunity — an open White House and no Republican heir apparent with a claim to the nomination. The group features no shortage of conservatives with untested mainstream appeal, including Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and former neurosurgeon Ben Carson.
Carson joins Romney on the agenda at this week’s Republican National Committee winter meeting in San Diego, where another cultural conservative favorite, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, and Wisconsin’s Walker are also slated to appear. Other would-be presidential contenders are sending senior aides to the three-day meeting to gauge interest in a prospective run.
Romney was added to the program just 36 hours before today’s opening session, having spent much of the weekend phoning leading Republicans and key former supporters across the country to signal serious interest in a 2016 campaign. Those calls continued Tuesday, as Romney reached out to Arizona Sen. John McCain, the party’s 2008 nominee.
Romney’s potential leap into the race seemed unthinkable a week earlier, when Bush and Christie were seen as more than capable of satisfying the establishment’s desire for mainstream candidates with White House-worthy résumés.
“By and large, they’re all going after the same base (of donors),” said former Missouri Sen. Jim Talent, a senior adviser to Romney’s 2012 campaign and among those he called in recent days to talk about another run.
“One of the things you have to determine is whether you can raise the money, and I think that’s one of the things he’s calling around about now,” Talent said. “I would feel pretty confident about that with him. He’s always been pretty good at mobilizing support.”
