Scott Walker: ‘Next up’ hasn’t worked so well for the Republican party

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker says he’s not going to speak ill of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, but that voters could say Republicans need a name from the “future” if they’re going to defeat former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in 2016.

“We had Bob Dole, John McCain, Mitt Romney. If it’s just whoever’s next up, that hasn’t worked so well for the Republican party in the past,” Mr. Walker told the Tampa Bay Times, going on to call Mr. Bush a “good man” and a “friend.”

Mr. Bush and Mr. Walker, both potential contenders for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination, are traveling to the early presidential state of New Hampshire this weekend.

“I just think voters are going to look at this and say, ’If we’re running against Hillary Clinton, we’ll need a name from the future — not a name from the past — to win,’ ” Mr. Walker said.

A recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll found that six in 10 voters sided more closely with the sentiment that Mr. Bush would represent too much of a return to the policies of the past, compared to about a quarter who said he’d provide the new ideas and vision the country will need for the future.

Asked the same of Mrs. Clinton, 51 percent said she’d represent too much of a return to the past and 44 percent said she’d provide new ideas and vision.

In the same poll, nearly 60 percent said they think it’s important to look to a person who will bring greater changes to current policies, versus 38 percent who said it was more important to look for a more experienced and tested person.

Mr. Walker also predicted Mr. Bush would be a prodigious fundraiser.

“There’s a lot of people who are loyal to that family because of an ambassadorship or an appointment or something like that, so those people are going to show up big on his first report,” he said. “What we’re hoping going forward are not donors of obligation but donors of passion, people who are passionate about the reforms we bring to the table.”