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 As many as eight possible candidates are to take part in the Iowa
Freedom Summit, a marathon day of back-to-back speeches organized by
Iowa's conservative Republican Steve King, a member of the U.S.
House of Representatives.
“There are a half a dozen candidates, plus or minus a little bit,
that I would put their names in a hat and draw one out and be really
happy as a replacement to the president we have today,” King told
ABC News.
The key names to watch are a pair of governors, Chris Christie of
New Jersey and Scott Walker of Wisconsin.
Christie is viewed skeptically by many conservatives, and how he
crafts his message here could be critical. Many Republicans see
Walker as a person to watch in spite of the early attention on the
potential candidacies of Mitt Romney, the 2012 nominee, and former
Florida Governor Jeb Bush.
 There are a variety of other people who will be at the event and who
could emerge as major 2016 players, such as former Texas Governor
Rick Perry, who ran for the nomination and lost in 2012, and former
Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, who won Iowa in 2008 but lost the
nomination.
Texas Senator Ted Cruz will also speak along with former
Hewlett-Packard Co Chief Executive Officer Carly Fiorina, physician
Ben Carson and former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum.
Steering clear of this event are Bush, Romney, Florida Senator Marco
Rubio and Kentucky Senator Rand Paul.
Iowa holds the first nominating contest of 2016 when Republicans and
Democrats gather early next year for caucuses. Republicans here have
not picked the eventual nominee since they went for George W. Bush
in 2004. But the caucuses do serve a valuable role in winnowing the
field.
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"This will serve as sort of the unofficial kickoff to the Iowa
caucus season for 2016," said Tim Albrecht, an Iowa Republican
strategist. "It's a great first look at how potential candidates
stack up against each other."
The event, he added, will help Iowa Republicans get a feel for who
has "a vision for America's role in the world, versus those who
followed the TV cameras here."
On Sunday, Cruz will join Rubio and Paul in Palm Springs,
California, where about 450 individuals are attending a winter
“seminar” organized by a network of groups founded by brothers
Charles and David Koch.
(Additional reporting by Amanda Becker in Washington; Editing by
Lisa Shumaker)
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