Iowa's David Kochel goes all in for Jeb Bush

Jeb Bush has recruited a key political strategist into his inner circle: Iowa's David Kochel, who has been a close adviser to Mitt Romney since Romney's earliest days on the presidential campaign trail.

After three months of soul searching and election forecasting, Kochel decided this week to join Team Bush, he told The Des Moines Register in an exclusive telephone interview Thursday.

Kochel, 50, of Des Moines, will be a senior adviser to Bush's new political action committee, Right to Rise. If Bush pulls the trigger and runs for president of the United States, Kochel would be tapped to lead his national campaign, Bush's advisers told the Register.

The hire signals that Bush, a former Florida governor, is digging in for a competitive nomination fight. And in a battle of two titans — Bush and Romney — who are drawing from the same pool of Republican staff, donors and volunteers, another important player has made his choice.

Some Iowa insiders have predicted that Kochel's selection for 2016 will be the state's eventual mainstream consensus pick for the GOP nomination.

"Ain't no hyperbole to say that @JebBush's hiring of @ddkochel is 1 of the 5 most significant developments of '16 cycle so far," tweeted Mark Halperin, co-managing editor of Bloomberg Politics and one of the nation's top TV political pundits.

Kochel is the first member of Romney's current leadership team to break away and publicly project doubts about the viability of a 2016 run for the former Massachusetts governor. While some other members of Romney's core team are privately deliberating about the wisdom of a third campaign, most are considered likely to stick with him if he decides to do it.

"It's got to be a bombshell in Romney world," said Sioux City-based GOP strategist Christopher Rants, who has endorsed Romney in the past. "David, I believe, was personally vested in Mitt. I can't see him doing it without having a heart-to-heart with Mitt himself. Certainly complicates their path here."

Dozens of GOP powerbrokers praised Bush's decision to reel in Kochel, who will move to Miami and take a leave of absence from his two Des Moines-based political firms, Redwave Digital and Redwave Communications.

"This selection might surprise some people. It does not surprise me," said David Oman, who was the Iowa co-chairman for Romney's 2012 presidential campaign. "David has high energy, deft political instincts, and sound judgment. He's built a fast-growing communications business ... David will take his experience and knowledge from great state campaigns to a national campaign and it will serve Gov. Bush well going forward."

Kochel: Bush unmatched

Kochel described Bush, who was governor of Florida from 1999 to 2007, as one of the nation's most innovative and effective state leaders, with a record of conservative reform "unmatched among his peers."

"Though the Republican Party has a deep bench of individuals that I respect and admire, I'd encourage Gov. Bush to take his record of accomplishment and dynamic, conservative ideas to the whole nation," said Kochel, who was Romney's Iowa strategist for his White House bids in 2008 and 2012, and has made headlines for advocating for same-sex marriage rights.

Bush signed legislation to reduce taxes, cut the size of government, prevent abortions and enact accountability measures in Florida schools, Kochel said.

"Gov. Bush is uniquely suited to take on the Democrat nominee and win the White House by welcoming every American regardless of race, class, or gender," he told the Register. Bush aides chose to have the Register and New York Times break the news simultaneously.

In Iowa, the next question is whether Bush's selection of an Iowa operative telegraphs a willingness to aggressively compete in the first-in-the-nation caucuses, or if he'll play lightly in favor of a more robust national campaign.

Iowa's most conservative caucusgoers will likely frown on some of Bush's stances, including his support for a path to legal status for illegal immigrants and his support for government-mandated education standards known as the Common Core.

Bush has yet to log any time here in search of caucus activists, but he has been laying political pavement. He has telephoned top Iowa GOP leaders, including Iowa GOP Chairman Jeff Kaufmann and U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley. He and Gov. Terry Branstad keep in regular touch. And Bush hosted a fundraiser for Joni Ernst in Coral Gables during her U.S. Senate bid last year.

GOP influencers in Iowa said Bush will be on the short list of candidates that mainstream Republicans in Iowa will consider, but he won't be the only one.

"There's a lot to digest after this past weekend," said Des Moines lawyer Bill Scherle, referring to the nine potential contenders who spoke at the Iowa Freedom Summit.

Scherle, who met Jeb Bush's father, George H.W. Bush, as an undergraduate in Texas and campaigned for him in Iowa in 1979, added: "Assumptions as to who's going to be in the top tier may be a little premature."

Bush has gone hard after big campaign donors, raising money quickly. Strategists said Bush's decision to bank tens of millions almost before anyone notices could give him the biggest bankroll in the primary season.

Romney could end up being the No. 2 fundraising leader, even as hopefuls such as Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker could become beneficiaries of outside spending from wealthy anti-establishment figures such as the Koch brothers.

Romney, who claimed nearly 30,000 votes to nearly tie for the win in the 2012 Iowa caucuses and won nearly 731,000 votes in the 2012 general election, has traveled to Iowa twice in the last year, both times to big fanfare from Iowa Republicans who urged him to run again.

None of the 15 or so Republicans who have been roaming the presidential testing grounds of Iowa lately have officially declared a candidacy yet. Bush's announcement on Twitter on Dec. 16 that he was going to "actively explore" a bid forced others in the political world to accelerate their decision timelines.

Romney had been quietly conferring with Kochel and other advisers since before the fall elections. He went public with the news that he's considering a third presidential bid when he told donors at a private meeting in New York on Jan. 9 that they were free to spread the word.

Others sought Kochel

Over the last year, Kochel had been the target of recruitment efforts — from quiet inquiries to high-pressure lobbying — by operatives for several potential candidates, including Romney, Kentucky U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, Florida U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Ohio U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, who has since said he's not running.

Another Iowa native, Sara Taylor Fagen, who was senior strategist to George W. Bush's 2004 re-election campaign, had been mentioned as a possible campaign manager for Jeb Bush, CNN reported earlier this week.

Several other political operatives with Iowa ties have already attached themselves to campaigns as Iowa advisers: Steve Grubbs and A.J. Spiker with Paul, Robert Haus with former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Jeff Boeyink and Phil Valenziano with Christie, and David Polyansky is with Walker.

Kochel is also known as a charismatic leader who isn't constrained by ideological thinking and who has a finger on the pulse of middle America and the struggles families face. He grew up in a single-parent home in small towns in Story County in central Iowa.

In his 30 years in politics, Kochel has sidestepped becoming part of the Washington, D.C., political culture even as he forged deep and loyal connections with political operatives and reporters in Iowa and across the country.

Kochel has long had the trust of two of Bush's closest political confidantes: Sally Bradshaw, whom he got to know during Romney's first presidential bid in 2008, and Mike Murphy, whom he has known since Branstad's 1994 governor's race.

It remains to be seen when or how often Bush will come to Iowa, a state he has expressed affection for but that presents obstacles for establishment candidates in 2016.

Former Dallas County GOP chairman Ralph Brown, who has known Bush since he traveled to dozens of Iowa counties on his father's behalf in 1979, said he thinks there's room for candidates of many styles and beliefs in Iowa.

"People don't really have a picture of what an exceptional governor of Florida he was," he said. "They haven't had a chance to get to know him yet."

DAVID KOCHEL

AGE: 50

PLACE OF BIRTH : Story City, Ia.

GREW UP: Story City and Boone, Ia.

CURRENT HOME: Des Moines.

EDUCATION: Boone High School; Iowa State University, bachelor's degree in political science.

WORK HISTORY: Kochel founded Redwave Communications, a national political communications firm, in 2002, and co-founded Redwave Digital, a multimedia messaging firm, in 2013. He has produced direct mail for campaigns in more than 80 congressional districts and 20 states. He was one of the architects of U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst's victory over Democrat Bruce Braley in 2014. He was a senior adviser to Mitt Romney's 2012 and 2008 presidential campaigns, providing strategic advice and marketing support in Iowa, New Hampshire and nationally. He helped mobilize campaigns for the Iowa caucuses for Lamar Alexander in 2000 and Bob Dole in 1988. And he has been part of Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad's campaigns for 30 years. He was executive director of the state GOP organizations in both Iowa and Michigan. He was a strategic consultant to the center-right New Rights Party in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia. And he has done public affairs and marketing campaigns for AT&T, Home Depot, Caruso Affiliated and California ballot initiatives led by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

FAMILY: Three sons, Duncan, 21, an ISU student; Sawyer, 19, a U.S. Marine Corps recruit; and Mason, 14.

Bush gets Grassley's advice

Jeb Bush called U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley on Tuesday to "tell me personally of his interest in the presidency," the Iowa Republican said Thursday.

"He asked some questions about what he ought to be doing in Iowa," Grassley told the Register during his weekly Iowa press conference call. "I tried to answer those questions and I tried to give him my opinions on — I won't tell you what the issues were, but I tried to give him my opinions on issues that may give him problems and then how I would do it, or how I do handle those things in questions at my town meetings."

The conversation lasted about 15 minutes, said Grassley, who is one of several top Iowa conservative influencers who have been getting personal calls lately from Bush, who is weighing a 2016 White House bid.

"He said that he wants to meet with me face to face, and I told him I would meet with him," he said.

Grassley encouraged Bush, who has yet to make a post-2012 visit here, to not forget Iowa.

"And I told him he ought to make sure he campaigns — don't do like Hillary Clinton does and just campaign in Des Moines, Iowa. There's other parts of Iowa," Grassley said.

— Jennifer Jacobs

A rare post for an Iowan

David Kochel is in line to join an exclusive club of Iowans who have served as the No. 1 on a national presidential campaign.

Veteran Iowa Democratic and GOP political operatives on Thursday could think of only one other: Marshalltown native Terry Nelson, who was national campaign manager for John McCain in 2008. However, a number of Iowans, including Kochel, have served as managers of candidate's Iowa efforts.

— Jennifer Jacobs