posted 03-31-2014 01:39 PM                  

It's quite clear that the big GOP kahunas were counting on Gov. Chris Christie as their Lord and Savior in the upcoming 2016 presidential race, but have been scared away by all the negativity surrounding the Bridgegate scandal, so instead they are focusing their attentions on backing Jeb Bush for the Oval Office.

Washington Post:

Many of the Republican Party’s most powerful insiders and financiers have begun a behind-the-scenes campaign to draft former Florida governor Jeb Bush into the 2016 presidential race, courting him and his intimates and starting talks on fundraising strategy.

Concerned that the George Washington Bridge traffic scandal has damaged New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s political standing and alarmed by the steady rise of Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.), prominent donors, conservative leaders and longtime operatives say they consider Bush the GOP’s brightest hope to win back the White House.

Many (if not most) of 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney’s major donors are reaching out to Bush and his confidantes with phone calls, e-mails and invitations to meet, according to interviews with 30 senior Republicans. One bundler estimated that the “vast majority” of Romney’s top 100 donors would back Bush in a competitive nomination fight.

“He’s the most desired candidate out there,” said another bundler, Brian Ballard, who sat on the national finance committees for Romney in 2012 and John McCain in 2008. “Everybody that I know is excited about it.”

Jeb Bush just was a featured player at the "Sheldon Primary" in Vegas on Thursday so he is definitely at the top of all the GOP lists that matter.