Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker told Iowans Monday night that if the GOP is going to take on a “name from the past” in 2016 in former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, they can’t offer up the same — reiterating what could become a standard line of attack for some 2016 Republican hopefuls.
“I just believe if we’re taking on a name from the past, then we can’t have another name from the past. We need a name for the future,” Mr. Walker said on a conference call organized by his political committee, Our American Revival, repeating a line he had just used on ABC’s “This Week.”
Now that 2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney has said he will not run again in 2016, the line could also be used by rivals of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, the son and brother of two former U.S. presidents, who is also weighing a run.
After a well-received speech at GOP Rep. Steve King’s “Iowa Freedom Summit,” Mr. Walker placed first in a Bloomberg Politics/Des Moines Register poll on possible 2016 contenders in the early presidential state released over the weekend.
Asked whether he thought Mr. Romney was referring to him when the former Massachusetts governor called for fresh leadership in the party in announcing Friday he would not be running for president in 2016, Mr. Walker, 47, said he phoned Mr. Romney that day, calling him a “good and decent man,” the Des Moines Register reported.
“I thanked him specifically for pointing that out,” Mr. Walker said. “I think, you know, there’s others — my friend Sen. [Marco] Rubio is about the same age and so in terms of fresh faces I guess he and I would be in a similar vein,” he said.
Mr. Rubio, 43, is also considering a run.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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