Christie, Bush compete for Romney’s donor pool
Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey and former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida plunged into all-out battle this weekend for the biggest unclaimed prize in American politics and the decisive advantage that could go with it: the billion-dollar donor network once harnessed by Mitt Romney.
In hundreds of phone calls that began even before Romney formally announced Friday that he was forgoing a third bid for the presidency, allies of Christie and Bush began putting intense pressure on Romney’s supporters to pick a side. And now donors have nowhere to hide, because virtually every contender for the Republican nomination has established a leadership PAC or other fundraising vehicle in recent weeks, and the candidates are leaning on them to make a commitment.
The next 48 hours, several donors said, could not only answer the question of whether Bush will face a serious challenge from Christie for the Republican Party’s establishment mantle. It may also demonstrate whether there is room left for anyone else in the first tier of Republican candidates.
“I’ve already had three phone calls from various camps asking me to have them over to talk,” said John Rakolta Jr., a Michigan construction executive and a leading Romney fundraiser. “I’ve told them I need a weekend to process this all.”
In interviews, other top Republican donors, both committed and uncommitted in the 2016 race, said they believed a small group of other candidates besides Bush and Christie now had an opportunity to claim substantial establishment money. At the top of that list are Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin and Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida. Walker’s barn-burner speech at a conservative gathering in Iowa last weekend has assuaged some donors’ concerns that he lacks the charisma to be an effective presidential contender, while Rubio earned high marks for his performance at an economic forum the same weekend hosted by Charles and David Koch.
“I do think this party is ready for an upset,” said Anthony Scaramucci, a hedge-fund manager who was on Romney’s New York finance team and spoke to representatives of several candidates after Romney dropped out. “This is not anybody’s coronation.”
But Christie and Bush remain best-positioned to capitalize on Romney’s decision. Until Friday, the roughly 300 “bundlers” whose Rolodexes of friends and business associates matter most in Republican fundraising looked likely to be fragmented. That would have helped candidates relying on smaller networks of non-establishment money, such as Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky.
Both Christie and Bush’s advisers are courting Spencer Zwick, who led Romney’s finance team in 2012 and helped the former Massachusetts governor raise more money than any other Republican presidential candidate in history.
Christie, who started a leadership PAC last month, is preparing to hold fundraising events in about 10 states over the coming months; Bush’s team has dozens of events scheduled for the winter and early spring, a punishing pace aimed at sewing up as much Republican money as possible before his first fundraising disclosures are due.