This article is from the source 'washpo' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.washingtonpost.com/romney-tells-donors-he-is-considering-2016-campaign/2015/01/09/5c8cb5d8-bb49-457b-9fb2-3b89e998cf5f_story.html?wprss=rss_homepage

The article has changed 3 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 0 Version 1
Romney tells donors he is considering 2016 campaign Romney to GOP donors: ‘I want to be president.’
(about 10 hours later)
This story has been updated. Mitt Romney forcefully declared his interest in a third presidential run to a room full of powerful Republican donors Friday, disrupting the fluid 2016 GOP field as would-be rival Jeb Bush was moving swiftly to consolidate establishment support.
Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, told Republican donors in New York on Friday that he is seriously considering a third presidential campaign in 2016, according to a source present at the meeting. Romney, the 2012 Republican nominee, has been mulling another campaign for several months, but his comments Friday marked a clear step forward in his thinking and come amid mounting tensions between the Romney and Bush camps.
Spencer Zwick, Romney’s former national finance co-chairman who was at the New York meeting, confirmed that Romney is weighing a 2016 run. “I want to be president,” Romney told about 30 donors in New York. He said that his wife, Ann — who last fall said she was emphatically against a run — had changed her mind and was now “very encouraging,” although their five sons remain split, according to multiple attendees.
“I believe Mitt Romney is too much of a patriot to sit on the sidelines and concede the presidency to Hillary Clinton or Elizabeth Warren when he knows that he can fix the country,” Zwick said. “He traveled the country in 2014, met with voters, met with citizens, and I think at the end of the day he believes he could actually make a difference.” Advisers said Romney discussed the race with his family over the holidays, when they spent time skiing in Park City, Utah, but he insisted that he has not made up his mind whether to run. Advisers said he recognizes that he would not be able to waltz into the nomination and that the intra-party competition is shaping up to be stiffer in next year’s primaries than it was in 2012.
Zwick added, “He won’t make a decision to run for president based on who else is in the race. He will make a decision based on his own desire and his own abilities. He has to decide on his own.” Bush’s sudden focus on the race in recent weeks has put pressure on Romney to decide soon. Romney has been in regular conversations with major donors, some of whom are pushing him to run again, but confidants have also warned him that his window of opportunity could shut if he does not declare his intentions within 30 to 60 days.
Romney’s move, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, comes as former Florida governor Jeb Bush is swiftly snatching up major party donors and operatives as he prepares for an all-but-certain presidential campaign. Romney’s comments at Friday’s meeting, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, electrified the world of Republican financiers, who are being courted aggressively by Bush, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.) and other hopefuls. Romney’s dalliance could freeze enough donors to spoil Bush’s plan to post an intimidatingly huge first-quarter fundraising haul this spring.
The former Massachusetts governor held a lengthy meeting on Friday with about 30 major donors to his past campaigns at an office in midtown Manhattan. His comment that he was seriously considering running came in response to a question from an attendee who asked if he would clear up whether he was jumping in the race. “What he has said to me before is, ‘I am preserving my options.’ What he is now saying is, ‘I am seriously considering a run,’ ” said Bobbie Kilberg, a top donor from Virginia who raised millions of dollars for Romney’s 2012 bid. She was briefed by attendees on Romney’s Friday comments. “And he said that in a room with 30 people. That is a different degree of intensity.”
“One of the more interesting things was Mitt said, ‘People ask if I really want to be president,’ and he said, ‘I’ve run twice. Yeah, I want to be president,’” said a source present for the session who was granted anonymity to share details of the meeting. “He said that box is checked.” Striving to keep his network intact, Romney on Friday also e-mailed his donors with invitations to his fourth annual policy summit in Park City, scheduled for June 11-13. Called the E2 Summit, the event is billed as an “intimate” gathering of Wall Street titans, politicos and former government officials.
Romney's wife, Ann, had sounded adamant in public comments last year that she did not want him to run for president in 2016. “Done. Completely," she said in October when asked about the prospect of another presidential campaign. “Not only Mitt and I are done, but the kids are done. Done. Done. Done.” Romney’s associates said that he has become restless since conceding to President Obama on a cold night in Boston two years ago. Romney’s motivation to run again stems from a lingering dissatisfaction with Obama’s policies, both economic and foreign, and a belief that he would have set the country on a better course.
But Romney told donors on Friday that Ann had changed her mind, according to a person in the room. Romney also harbors doubts that Bush and other Republican contenders can defeat likely Democratic candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton, advisers said, and is wary in particular about Bush’s political skills.
“Mitt said that Ann was ‘very encouraging,’ but that the boys are split,” this person said. “I believe Mitt Romney is too much of a patriot to sit on the sidelines and concede the presidency to Hillary Clinton or [Massachusetts Sen.] Elizabeth Warren when he knows that he can fix the country,” said Spencer Zwick, Romney’s 2012 national finance chairman, who accompanied Romney to Friday’s New York meeting.
Romney's remarks Friday immediately electrified the Republican donor world, and set phones ringing across the country. “I think, at the end of the day, he believes he could actually make a difference,” Zwick said. “He won’t make a decision to run for president based on who else is in the race. He will make a decision based on his own desire and his own abilities.”
“What he has said to me before is, ‘I am preserving my options.’ What he is now saying is, ‘I am seriously considering a run,’” noted Bobbie Kilberg, a top GOP fundraiser who bundled millions for Romney’s 2012 bid. “And he said that in a room with 30 people. That is a different degree of intensity.” Romney’s advisers said he is approaching the decision pragmatically. “He does not go into things looking through rose-colored glasses,” said one Romney adviser who spoke on condition of anonymity to talk candidly.
“What that says to me that Mitt understands that if he is going to get into this race, he needs to get into it the very near future,” Kilberg added. This adviser said Romney is far from having his mind made up: “He knows he’ll have to earn it, and he believes in that; that the presidency is too important to hand it over to somebody. He doesn’t talk like that at all. He wants to go out and make his case to the American people and see what happens. But he’s not that far.”
Since the GOP's midterm election romp, Romney has cultivated his role as one of the party's key behind-the-scenes players, nurturing relationships with members of Congress and keeping in close touch with his former consultants. One immediate hurdle Romney would face is that many of the prominent donors that backed his last campaign, as well as some senior operatives who worked for him before, have already been scooped up by Bush or other candidates. GOP lawyer Charlie Spies, who co-founded the pro-Romney super PAC Restore our Future, is now representing Bush’s leadership committee, the Right to Rise PAC, as well as a pro-Bush super PAC of the same name.
He made more than 80 phone calls to GOP candidates after the election — including Senate candidates Joni Ernst of Iowa and Thom Tillis of North Carolina — to congratulate them on their victories. He spent election night in Boston watching returns at the home of former aide Ron Kaufman, stopping in later at the Seaport Hotel to congratulate Baker on his win. Some Republicans have sharply criticized him since 2012 over his missteps on the campaign trail and his final performance — he lost every swing state except North Carolina and finished with 206 electoral votes to Obama’s 332. Democrats successfully cast him as out of touch with the middle class after he was caught on video telling wealthy donors that 47 percent of Americans do not take personal responsibility for their lives.
In the days after the elections, a group of Romney supporters began circulating a memo that compared the success of his midterm endorsements with those made by Hillary Rodham Clinton, the front-runner for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R), a 2016 presidential hopeful, assailed Romney shortly after the 2012 election: “We have to stop dividing the American voters. We need to go after 100 percent of the votes, not 53 percent.” Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R), also eyeing a 2016 run, wrote in his 2013 book that Romney did a “lousy job” talking about the economy “in a way that is relevant to people’s lives.”
The documents, which were obtained by The Washington Post, concluded that two out of three Romney candidates won their elections, compared with one in three for Clinton. Friday’s declaration of interest by Romney, a former Massachusetts governor and businessman, was not welcomed by all of his former allies — especially those close to the Bush family.
On Wednesday, Romney met with several of his former political advisers in Menlo Park, Calif., for a private dinner shortly after he lectured at Stanford University on presidential politics. “Frankly, he has been bypassed by Jeb,” said Doug Gross, Romney’s 2008 Iowa campaign chairman and longtime Bush ally. “The time for Governor Romney has probably passed. He has already lost twice. The jury is very much out on whether Republican voters would go with him again.”
At the table were four Romney loyalists who held senior positions in his 2012 presidential campaign: Ben Ginsberg, Katie Biber Chen, Andrea Saul, and Lanhee Chen. Romney’s relationship with Bush’s orbit has evolved from warm to strained in recent months. Bush’s chief political strategist is Mike Murphy, who also is close to Romney and advised his successful 2002 gubernatorial campaign. Last year, Murphy helped Romney on TV ads for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, shooting on a California set that bore more than a passing resemblance to the Oval Office.
Ginsberg and Biber Chen were Romney’s campaign counselors during Romney’s last bid, Saul was his national press secretary, and Chen was his policy director. But as Bush has ramped up his own efforts, Romney’s coziness with Murphy has dissipated. They last met shortly before Christmas, when Romney asked Murphy about preparations for Bush’s campaign and told Murphy he had not ruled out a bid of his own, according to Romney backers with knowledge of the conversation.
According to a source who requested anonymity to discuss a private gathering, Romney ducked a question during the Stanford class about whether he would once again mount a White House bid. Romney has been talking frequently with Stuart Stevens, his top 2012 strategist and a Murphy rival, while keeping a watchful eye on Bush’s moves to woo Romney’s former supporters. On Friday, Bush was in Boston, Romney’s home base where he headquartered his past campaigns, trying to persuade Romney donors to get behind his effort.
The course, POLISCI 72, was titled “Policy, Politics, and the Presidency: Understanding the 2016 Campaign from Start to Finish,” according to a university syllabus. Its description begins: “In 2016, Americans will once again go to the polls to select a new president. But what will actually happen behind-the-scenes between now and then is largely a mystery to most.” Veteran GOP consultant Ed Rollins said, “Romney knows that he can block donors from going to Bush if he sends a clear enough message.”
After the dinner, Romney took a red-eye flight to Boston to attend Massachusetts Republican Charlie Baker’s gubernatorial inauguration Thursday. “If you put Romney and Bush head to head, I think Romney probably wins that fight,” Rollins said. “Nobody is wholesale walking away from him. The donor base and operatives are still there. Bush thought he’d have an open field to easily beat Christie. Romney, if he gets in, changes that plan.”
Romney’s decision to offer a more forceful declaration of his interest in running again appears to have been spurred by Bush’s quick entry into the race. Longtime Romney donors being wooed by Bush have been urging the former Massachusetts governor to let his intentions be known quickly, so they can decide who to back. On Wednesday, Romney lectured at Stanford University in a class titled “Understanding the 2016 Campaign from Start to Finish,” which is taught by his former policy director, Lanhee Chen. Romney later had dinner in Menlo Park, Calif., with Chen, former spokeswoman Andrea Saul and former campaign lawyers Ben Ginsberg and Katie Biber Chen.
And one immediate challenge that would face Romney in a new presidential bid: many of the top donors and fundraisers that backed his last campaign have already signed up to back potential rivals such as Bush or New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. Senior party operatives who assisted his bid are also getting scooped up. GOP super lawyer Charlie Spies, who co-founded the pro-Romney super PAC Restore our Future, is now representing two new pro-Bush PACs. Romney has remained close to such power brokers as New York Jets owner Woody Johnson, a Republican fundraiser who co-chaired Romney’s 2012 campaign and who attended Friday’s meeting.
“Talking to lots of people close to him, I know the idea is still alive and certainly there are many of us who think he’d be an outstanding president,” said former Minnesota Republican congressman Vin Weber, a former Romney adviser, in an interview Wednesday. “But they will make a mistake if they think that his status allows him to wait for a long period of time. What Bush understands is that the advantage of having so-called front-runner status is that a lot of people will sign up early on.” “When I walked into Woody’s box a few weeks ago, Romney was sitting there in a turtleneck,” recalled former New Jersey governor Tom Kean. “He was in good spirits.”
Former New Jersey governor Tom Kean, who is familiar with the donors allied with Romney and Bush, said Romney has remained close to New York Jets owner Woody Johnson, a major Republican fundraiser, among other financiers, since the 2012 campaign. Dan Balz contributed to this report.
“When I walked into Woody’s box a few weeks ago, Romney was sitting there in a turtleneck,” Kean recalled in an interview. “He was in good spirits and we spoke for a half-hour.”
Craig Robinson, who runs The Iowa Republican, an influential Website covering the first-in-the-nation caucuses, expressed skepticism Friday about Romney's maneuvering.
"Romney needs to answer the question of why does he believe he deserves another shot. He's been the nominee, and failed miserably," Robinson wrote in a Twitter message. "The only reason Romney is "considering another run" is because he sees his influence in the GOP slipping away. Not a good reason to run."
A Bloomberg Politics/St. Anselm New Hampshire poll released in late November suggested that Romney held a healthy advantage over potential 2016 rivals in New Hampshire, with the support of 30 percent of potential presidential primary voters, to Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul's 11 percent, Christie's 9 percent, Bush's 8 percent.
But amid the speculation within Romney’s orbit about his thinking on 2016, Ron Kaufman, another former Romney adviser, said the former Massachusetts governor was not yet actively preparing for a third try, and simply enjoys staying in touch with his former aides and donors.
“He’s been consistent from Day One to make sure Republicans win in 2016,” Kaufman said in an interview Wednesday. “He is going to whatever he can to help and hopes someone out there catches fire. He’ll be out there the whole time helping.”
Matea Gold contributed to this report.