As next year’s US presidential elections approach, three high-profile Republicans from the party’s mainstream are suddenly competing for the same group of elite donors and staffing talent with Mitt Romney launching a third run for the top job.
And that list — Romney, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and former Florida governor Jeb Bush — does not 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.
In the race for the Democratic nomination, Hillary Rodham Clinton has emerged as an early front-runner, although she has not yet declared her candidacy.
Nor have any of the ambitious Republicans formally entered the race yet.
However, 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 abundance of Republican presidential prospects who put economic policy ahead of social issues comes after Republican 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.
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 resumes.
“By and large, they’re all going after the same base [of donors],” said former Missouri senator 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.”
A spokeswoman for Jeb Bush welcomed Romney to the race this week, but she said the former Massachusetts governor’s efforts would not affect Bush’s own plans.
While some establishment donors predict that Christie is set to suffer most from the crowded field, his camp suggests Bush and Romney actually cause as much trouble for each other, if not more.
Christie is making moves that suggest he is preparing to move forward sooner than expected, including a State of the State speech on Tuesday that sought to define his record at home for voters elsewhere.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not