A group of Republicans who want to see Gov. Bobby Jindal elected president are launching a super PAC to boost the governor’s 2016 aspirations.
The Washington Examiner reports organizers of the Believe Again Super PAC plan to file papers today and begin an aggressive push to raise money in anticipation of the second-term governor’s hoped-for presidential announcement.
Former congressman and lobbyist Bob Livingston, for whom Jindal interned back in his college days, will serve as chairman of the PAC. Business Report Publisher Rolfe McCollister, who was treasurer of Jindal’s 2007 gubernatorial campaign and chairman of the governor’s transition team, is the new PAC’s treasurer. Brad Todd, a Washington-based Republican operative, will serve as primary consultant to the PAC.
Jindal has yet to announce a 2016 run and repeatedly has said he’ll make a decision on it early this year. But the formation of the new Super PAC makes it clear that the governor’s biggest supporters clearly think he’s going to run, The Washington Examiner reports.
“The decision by the governor’s closest supporters to move ahead with Believe Again didn’t happen in a vacuum: They wouldn’t have moved if they didn’t think he was running,” reads the article. “Jindal has been signaling for some time that he intends to seek the White House, and the opening of a super PAC on his behalf was necessary if he hoped to be sufficiently resourced to prevail in what is expected to be crowded, competitive GOP primary.”
Jindal’s PAC joins a field of political organizations launched to boost potential 2016 candidates. Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor, recently unveiled a super PAC and federal leadership political action committee, both named Right to Rise; Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is in the process of forming a political group; and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio has long since developed his leadership PAC, Reclaim America, into a political team and fundraising machine.
“Republican voters are tired of empty rhetoric from the same old politicians,” Livingston says. “They want a full-spectrum conservative who has the courage and bandwidth to make large scale reforms. If Gov. Jindal runs, he will the kind of candidate who makes Republicans able to believe again.”
