Jeb Bush Is Winning the Wonk Primary

While Jeb Bush travels the country vacuuming up money for his PAC, he's taking a little extra time to lock down the GOP's wonks. In January, Bush met with several of the intellectuals profiled by Sam Tanenhaus in his summer 2014 "party of ideas" piece. Young Guns Network policy director April Ponnuru had, as reported by Tanenhaus, brainstormed a "reform conservatism" strategy with Yuval Levin, Peter Wehner, and her husband Ramesh Ponnuru (who is a Bloomberg View columnist). The four of them joined Bush in January, and April Ponnuru is likely to join the nascent Bush campaign as a policy adviser, sources said.

Levin confirmed that the January meeting took place, but added that the "reform conservatives" were keeping open doors and long office hours. "We've talked (separately or sometimes a few of us together or with others) with other Republicans thinking of running for president or people around them in recent months too," wrote Levin in an e-mail, "as I know many people in the think tank world have." April Ponnuru declined to comment; Bush's PAC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.