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 Walker, 47, stood out among a long list of potential candidates
who sought the attention of a thousand conservative grassroots
activists at the Iowa Freedom Summit on Saturday.
Coatless with his shirt sleeves rolled up, Walker talked up his
conservative record as governor, including his defeat of a 2012
recall effort over his challenge to the collective bargaining
process for most public unions.
Trailing potential rivals in campaign organization and fund-raising,
Walker lacks the name recognition of such party heavyweights as
former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, 2012 nominee Mitt Romney and New
Jersey Governor Chris Christie.
The first contest in the nominating process is a year away, but
Bush's early decision to explore a run for the Republican nomination
has accelerated the race, and the scramble is on to build donor
networks and attract talented staff.
"Will Governor Walker be able to compete in a field that has proven
major financial players? I know that’s an issue that those in his
camp are sensitive to," said Matt Strawn, a former chairman of the
Iowa Republican Party.
 All told, Walker has won three statewide elections in four years,
defeating the recall effort and emerging triumphant in votes in 2010
and last November.
NO 'TAP-DANCING' AROUND ISSUES
"That sends a powerful message to Republicans in Washington and
around the country: if you're not afraid to go big and go bold, you
can actually get results," Walker said.
People at the Iowa Freedom Summit liked what they heard.
"He didn't do any tap-dancing around the issues," said Bob Gough of
Lee's Summit, Missouri. "A lot of people describe the problems we’re
having but didn’t kind of close the loop on how it has to get fixed,
and I think Scott described the changes that he had made and the
things that need to be done."
The recall effort over the union dispute put Walker in the spotlight
and made him a darling of the right. The national donor network that
raised money for him in the recall fight could come to his aid and
help him stand out in a field of a dozen candidates or more.
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"He'll face money issues like everybody else, but he will be
competitive like everybody else," said Kurt Bauer, head of Wisconsin
Manufacturers & Commerce.
Since Wisconsin adjoins Iowa, Walker would need to do well in the
Iowa caucuses a year from now to catapult himself to the next
nominating contests in New Hampshire and South Carolina.
He has begun building a team, with the hiring of David Polyansky as
senior presence in Iowa and Rick Wiley as campaign manager, and his
next step is to form a political action committee to raise money.
But he also has to think beyond Iowa.
Unlike Christie, who has paid a lot of attention to New Hampshire as
he considers a run, Walker has not made many inroads in the state
that holds the first presidential primary. He will appear there on
March 14.
"He starts at the bottom," said Fergus Cullen, former chairman of
the New Hampshire Republican Party. "There's a path for him no doubt
about that. But there's going to be a lot of competition, and it's
going to take more than one good day in Iowa to launch his
candidacy."
(Reporting by Steve Holland; Editing by Howard Goller)
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