It was a political beauty pageant — with the White House as the potential prize.
Some of the leading Republican candidates for president gathered at Jet owner Woody Johnson’s home Monday night to preview their pitches before some of the party’s biggest fund-raisers, sources said.
Heavy hitters paid $34,000 a plate to take the measure of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin — any of whom could be the next Republican nominee in 2016.
Possible contenders Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who’s up for re-election next year, also attended.
The event pulled in more than $3 million, with a separate reception drawing 300 donors that raised even more for the Republican National Committee.
Sources said all the candidates received a good response from the GOP powerbrokers, but Christie and Paul stood out.
“Everybody got the same amount of applause,” said one source, “although the ones who got the most excitement were Rand Paul and Chris Christie.”
Paul, a libertarian who built a national following after waging a filibuster against US drone strikes, “was very unconventional about how Republicans need to reach out to African-Americans and the young, and he was the only one who talked about that,” the source said.
Christie talked up the importance of his own effort to win re-election by a huge margin in November in order to make a national statement.
“I’m going to win my re-election in New Jersey and I’m going to show that a ‘red’ guy can win a blue state,” he said, according to the source.
The source added that Christie’s remarks were “all about winning.”
Rubio tried to win over the well-heeled group by stressing his humble roots.
“Rubio said, ‘I was the son of a bartender and my mother was a maid. I was never angry at rich people, I never wanted to take it away from them. I’m proof that the Republican Party can appeal to the parents of working-class immigrant parents,’ ” the source said.He said he never had class envy,” said the source.
Among those at the event were New York state GOP chairman Ed Cox, former Goldman Sachs honchos Ed Forst and John Whitehead, Pat Durkin of Barclays Bank, former Bush Treasury official Emil Henry, NASCAR CEO Brian France, Bain Capital co-founder Ed Conard and Texas Sen. John Cornyn.
Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas opted to stay in Washington. “Defunding ObamaCare is his priority,” his spokeswoman explained.
One insider described the gathering as a political beauty pageant, with each potential — yet undeclared — candidate preening before the powerbrokers.
Johnson, the heir to the Johnson & Johnson fortune, led Mitt Romney’s New York fund-raising effort in 2012, helping turn the city into a cash cow for the GOP nominee. He bundled more than $400,000 in contributions for Romney, according to OpenSecrets, a campaign- watchdog Internet site.
Several former Romney bundlers have donated to Rubio’s PAC.
Although Christie shares some natural constituencies with Romney, many Romney backers were furious over his embrace of President Obama late in the 2012 campaign.