GOP 2016 Favorites: Follow The Money

While Democratic speculation on the 2016 presidential race focuses on Hillary Clinton, the Republican race is wide open.  Wesley Lowery interviewed the biggest donors to Mitt Romney’s campaign to find out which way they were leaning.  Kevin Drum summarizes:

1. Jeb Bush
2. Scott Walker
3. Paul Ryan

This makes sense to me. If I had to pick a top three, this would be it, with the order depending a lot on who decides to get serious about running. I think Paul Ryan would be very formidable, with strong appeal to both tea party types and mainstream types, but it’s unclear if he has any interest in 2016. Jeb Bush is a classic candidate who, again, has some appeal in both camps, but has to decide if he thinks he can overcome the obvious baggage of being a Bush. Scott Walker has to win reelection this year—and show that he can do it handily—before he takes any further steps.

The Republicans have a habit of picking the “next person in line” for their presidential nominee.  Only Jeb Bush (heir to the Bush dynasty) or Paul Ryan (Romney’s veep candidate) have a good claim to being next in line so this top three makes a lot of sense to me.

By: Stuart Shapiro

Stuart is a professor and the Director of the Public Policy
program at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers
University. He teaches economics and cost-benefit analysis and studies
regulation in the United States at both the federal and state levels.
Prior to coming to Rutgers, Stuart worked for five years at the Office
of Management and Budget in Washington under Presidents Clinton and
George W. Bush.