Scott Walker is moving to seize on Mitt Romney’s withdrawal from the presidential race and show he can compete with Jeb Bush as a top-tier candidate. Sources tell POLITICO that the Wisconsin governor is aggressively courting Romney donors, planning a March fundraising foray into Bush’s home turf of Florida, and has just hired a top Washington fundraiser.

But several of Walker’s biggest contributors from the past five years said in interviews over the past week they are not yet committed to his expected 2016 bid, even as they offered praise for the governor and his prospects as a White House contender.


“We’re in the early stages,” said New York financier Roger Hertog, who has contributed $120,000 to Walker. “We’re not even out of the first inning. There’s no reason to do rankings and to try to draw Las Vegas odds.”

Hertog said he will “probably support a number of people in some way early on” before going all-in for one Republican after the field has gelled. “There are a number of very high quality candidates, and Gov. Walker is one,” he said.

After a banner week that’s seen him vault into the lead in Iowa, Walker’s biggest test in the coming months will be to translate the past financial backing he received in his battle with Big Labor in Wisconsin into pledges of support for a presidential campaign.

His new lead fundraising consultant, Jenny Drucker, was finance director at the National Republican Congressional Committee the past two election cycles and was the deputy director before that. She’ll be in charge of setting up the donor network, including the recruitment of bundlers, and getting the governor in front of new, wealthy prospects.

Drucker left the NRCC at the end of 2014 to start her own firm with her deputy, Alex Lawhon, an alumnus of John McCain’s 2008 campaign, who will also focus on Walker’s effort. The duo has helped Republicans raise more than $500 million over the past decade. Before the NRCC, Drucker was PAC director at the National Republican Senatorial Committee in 2008.

Meanwhile, Walker’s allies are discussing forming a pro-Walker super PAC to roll out in the coming weeks, sources said.

Walker raised $36 million to fend off an attempt in 2012 to recall him from office. He raised $25 million more in 2014 to win a tough reelection race against an opponent who dropped in $5 million of her own fortune.

These high-profile showdowns allowed him to cultivate some of the party’s biggest donors, from Sheldon Adelson to Foster Friess. Walker finished second in an informal straw poll of assembled donors at the annual winter meeting of the Koch brothers’ political network late last month in California.

A surprise Des Moines Register poll this weekend put Walker at the front of the pack in Iowa, another indication of a surge in grass-roots support. He is positioning himself as a consensus candidate who can win support from establishment, evangelical and tea party Republicans.

Some allies of Bush have been arguing behind the scenes that Walker won’t be able to compete with the financial juggernaut they’re amassing. Bush has at least 60 fundraising events scheduled over the next few months, aiming to post a first-quarter haul that will show beyond question he’s the candidate to beat for the nomination.

Walker allies are confident that they’ll have plenty of money to be competitive even if they can’t match Bush. The key, they say, is to collect enough money to be viable in the early-voting states — through March 1, 2016. If they can pull off a few initial victories, a gush of money will follow, they predict.

One Walker adviser likened Bush to Rudy Giuliani, the former New York City mayor who raised oodles of money in the 2008 race but never caught fire with the grass roots. “If you can’t place well in the first four states, it doesn’t matter how much cash you have,” said a Walker adviser.

Since his reelection in November, Walker has traveled to Palm Springs, San Francisco, Denver, Nashville and Lakewood, New Jersey – Gov. Chris Christie’s terrain — to schmooze with donors.

After he returns from London next week for a trade mission, Walker is heading to New York City from Feb. 18 to 20 for a fundraising swing. Details are being finalized, but sources familiar with his plans say Walker will go to the Sunshine State during the first weekend in March to visit with major donors. This is Bush country, of course, as well as home to Sen. Marco Rubio, another potential challenger.

Walker associates say he’s also eyeing donors in Texas, home to Sen. Ted Cruz and former Gov. Rick Perry.

Walker’s finance team approached his inauguration festivities last month with presidential donors in mind. Foster Friess, the main funder of Rick Santorum’s super PAC in 2012, was one of several GOP contributors seated prominently at the ceremony. Friess, who is originally from Wisconsin and graduated from the state university in Madison, is likely to back the former Pennsylvania senator again this time. But Walker could be his second choice, and Minnesota media mogul Stan Hubbard, a major donor who’s backing Walker, said he intended to email Friess to make the case that Santorum couldn’t win. “He’s making a big mistake and I’ll tell him so.”

“What he’s done is remarkable, and he’s done it in a state that has been heavily controlled by unions and by the Democrats, and they spent millions trying to get rid of him,” added Hubbard, who promised to set up an event for Walker in the Twin Cities after fielding a call from him recently.

Hubbard said Walker’s recent successes will differentiate him from the rest of the field. “What has Cruz ever done, except get elected?” said the billionaire. “What’s he ever done that’s constructive or positive? Nothing.”

The Wisconsin governor starts the 2016 fundraising with one head start over most other rivals: He has amassed an email list from his various election battles that approaches 300,000 small donors and includes contributors from all 50 states, members of his political team say.

He’s also developed key relationships with many big Republican donors. Investment banker Warren Stephens, an Arkansas co-chairman for Romney in 2012, gave about $100,000 to Walker’s recall campaign. The two have spoken on the phone several times but never met in person. Stephens said he is uncommitted in the presidential race but likes what he’s seen of Walker.

“He seems to be able to enact good policies in a state where I wouldn’t have thought you could get them through, and he won reelection,” said Stephens. “He’s clearly a very bright, capable guy.”

Walker has a long history with the powerful political operation created by the billionaire industrialist brothers Charles and David Koch, and is believed by insiders to be Charles Koch’s second favorite of the 2016 prospects, behind Rand Paul.

During the fight with the unions in Wisconsin and subsequent recall election, Walker won support from the Kochs’ most robust political group, Americans for Prosperity, and also scored coveted invitations to the networks’ twice-a-year donor seminars. While Walker wasn’t able to participate in a forum at last month’s seminar featuring Cruz, Rubio and Paul, sources said the Wisconsin governor impressed donors during a separate reception and breakout session.

Some of the top donors to Walker’s gubernatorial campaigns are members in good standing of the Koch network, including Wisconsin roofing billionaire Diane Hendricks, who has given nearly $530,000 over the years to Walker and is expected to support his campaign if he runs for president.

While Walker was in the California desert, his finance staff organized a breakfast for him with wealthy conservatives outside the Koch network at the exclusive Vintage Club estates in Indian Wells — highlighting his team’s effort to make the most of every trip.

Walker has also worked hard to make inroads with the party’s deep-pocketed Jewish donor community. Sheldon Adelson gave $650,000 to the Republican Party of Wisconsin in October to help Walker’s reelection. During the recall, when Walker could briefly collect unlimited sums, Adelson gave him $250,000.

The casino magnate has met with several candidates but not committed to one. But Adelson hosted a dinner for Walker last year. Walker also received a good reception at the Republican Jewish Coalition meeting last March, which is held at the Adelson-owned Venetian, attendees said at the time.

Fred Malek, a major GOP fundraiser who served as finance chairman for the Republican Governors Association during the 2014 cycle, has become close with Walker over the years. “I can’t think of anybody I’d rather be in foxhole with during a firefight,” Malek said as he introduced Walker before the governor delivered a speech in Washington last week.

The governor stayed at Malek’s house during his visit, so that he could attend the exclusive Alfalfa Dinner on Saturday night. Malek said he would “absolutely” put Walker in the top tier of 2016 candidates, along with Bush and Christie. He said all three will have enough money to compete.

Malek said Walker would still be very viable even if, hypothetically, he raised only 70 percent as much as Bush did.

“So don’t focus on that,” he said. “Focus on who they’re getting on their teams, their organizers [and] what their message is. That’s what’s going to be important.”

Anna Palmer and Katie Glueck contributed to this report.