Mitt Romney spoiled those plans on Friday.
All of a sudden, the Republican primary field features a growing group of businesslike state executives in Romney, Bush and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, all competing for the same party establishment donors, operatives and supporters.
Chris Christie tests limits of authenticity
The battle between Bush and Romney, once thought to be a long-shot, looks much more plausible after Romney told a group of about 30 top donors in the New York office of Jets owner Woody Johnson that he is considering a third bid for the White House — and that they were free to go tell their friends.
Romney felt he needed to tell his donors what he was thinking “so they could take a pause before they start backing Jeb — that’s really what precipitated this,” a source who attended the meeting said.
The meeting marked a dramatic departure from one year ago, when The New York Times asked Romney about running again and he responded by saying the word “no” 11 times. Now, he’s making phone calls to influential Republicans.
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While complementary of other potential candidates, Romney also made it clear that he thinks he would be the best GOP candidate among those who are moving toward presidential bids.
Romney’s talk on Friday, however, did not advance beyond the two-time candidate saying that he was giving thought to a run. There was no broader discussion, for example, about the technicalities of getting the various pro-Romney political action committees up and running for this cycle.
Kristy Campbell, a spokeswoman for Bush, said in a statement merely that he “respects” Romney, but wouldn’t be affected by the chatter.
“His process moving forward won’t be impacted by Gov. Romney’s decision to explore a run — and I would assume it is the same on the reverse side,” she said.
CNN’s Maeve Reston and David Chalian contributed to this report.
