AP Photo Mitt Romney says he’s considering a 2016 run 
 
 Mitt Romney told a group of longtime supporters on Friday that he is considering running for president, a major turnaround for a past GOP nominee who just a year ago categorically ruled out a 2016 run. 
 
 If he follows through, it would be Romney’s third White House campaign, and it would shake up the already large field of Republicans eyeing the presidency. But even many Romney supporters are skeptical he will ultimately jump in and risk losing three times. 
 
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 “Everybody in here can go tell your friends that I’m considering a run,” Romney said at a private meeting in New York with about 30 former donors, according to one source. 
 
 The former Massachusetts governor, who was the Republican presidential nominee in 2012, said he had a number of ideas about how to help the country, and that one of the issues he’d like to address is poverty, two people on hand at the meeting said. He also pledged that if he does decide to join the race, he would run a much different campaign than he has in the past. 
 
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 Romney’s 2012 race was plagued by complaints about insularity and a lack of a clear, defining message beyond being the anti-President Obama. He was caricatured by Democrats as a cold-blooded jobs killer during his private equity days, and was never able to relate to voters. 
 
 The gathering was called a few weeks ago and was held in midtown Manhattan. Romney’s remarks were first reported by The Wall Street Journal. 
 
 People on hand included financier Patrick Durkin, and Alex Nabab, both of whom have committed to former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who is also exploring a 2016 run, and were involved in events with him earlier in the week in New York City and Connecticut. That both are already on the Bush bandwagon underscores the challenge Romney would face in trying to ensure his donor network remains intact if he runs. 
 
 For Romney’s former backers, the news wasn’t a complete surprise. For weeks, he has been slowly ratcheting up his rhetoric in conversations. But his decision to informally test the waters came as Bush has dominated media coverage and donor interest for the last several weeks, including the two New York-area events. And a number of the attendees, who said they were invited to a confidential meeting with Romney and were given no heads-up that he would use the gathering to make a more direct case for himself, were frustrated to find word of it had leaked. 
 
 (Also on POLITICO: Bush blasts off) 
 
 Bush has been moving to engage the extensive donor network that backed his father and his brother in their White House campaigns. That means that for Romney, the window is closing. One source close to Romney said he will likely decide within the next two months about his next move. 
 
 Romney allies and former staffers have spent much of the past two years lamenting that he should have won in his 2012 campaign against President Barack Obama. Romney also ran for the White House in 2008, but lost the GOP nod to Sen. John McCain of Arizona. 
 
 Just a year ago, in an interview with The New York Times, Romney ruled out a presidential run in a most emphatic manner: “Oh, no, no, no. No, no, no, no, no. No, no, no,” he said. 
 
 But Romney supporters have argued that there’s a clamor for people who would like to see someone emerge as a leader for the Republican Party during a particularly fractious time, and Romney recently began making clear to donors and supporters that such talk was affecting his thinking. 
 
 In addition, Romney told those gathered Friday that his wife, Ann, was now very encouraging toward his running again, a source said — a change from her past protests. The couple’s five sons, however, were split on the notion. 
 
 Bush’s decision to move quickly to draw a line in the sand was in part because of Romney’s overtures to donors. Bush allies had privately grown frustrated that Romney was freezing some donors who hoped he would launch a campaign of his own. 
 
 Bush announced in December that he is considering a 2016 run, and he has moved quickly since to set up a leadership PAC, dubbed “The Right to Rise” to accept donations. A super PAC with the same name has also been set up to help Bush. 
 
 The former Florida governor has repeatedly said he won’t make a stark pitch to the Republican Party’s more conservative base by bending his positions to appease voters. He also has lamented that no recent GOP nominee has tried to avoid taking positions to win over GOP primary voters who are more conservative, stances that end up turning off general election voters. 
 
 Bush and Romney are looking to occupy the center-right establishment lane. A sprawling array of senators, governors and former officials who appeal to different segments of the conservative base are also in the GOP’s potential 2016 mix. Among those seriously laying the groundwork for a presidential campaign are Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky, Marco Rubio of Florida, and Ted Cruz of Texas. Also a possibility is New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, would likely vie for the same center-right support that Romney and Bush would seek. 
 
 Romney drew flak for his overtures to the right in 2012, especially on the subject of immigration. Bush has criticized the way Romney allowed himself to be defined negatively by Democrats during that campaign. Democrats at the time cast Romney, who made a fortune in the financial sector, as a heartless businessman. 
 
 Romney, in turn, has argued privately that Bush, should he run in 2016, will face some of the same criticism over his own extensive business ties. Bush has recently taken steps to reduce his private sector links. And Bush allies privately point out that Romney made his business record as a private equity executive a centerpiece of his rationale for running, something the former Florida governor isn’t planning to do. 
 
 At Friday’s gathering, there was a consensus among Romney supporters that he needs to reintroduce himself to the voters, in a complimentary way like the video aired about him at the GOP convention in 2012. Romney responded by saying that the damaging portraits of him are now old news and therefore less harmful. 
 
 For Romney, the prospect of another campaign also is a potential boon to business: Many of his donors are also potential investors in his son Tagg’s firm, Solamere Capital. 
 
 But Romney, whose late father also ran for president, has dreamed of the White House for years. 
 
 His increased interest comes not just as Bush has been trying to seize the establishment lane, but as Hillary Clinton, the undeclared but overwhelming Democratic favorite, has seen her approval numbers fall in recent months. 
 
 Follow @politico ||||| Washington (CNN) Mitt Romney told an audience of Republican donors in New York on Friday that he is seriously considering a third presidential bid. 
 
 "Mitt told the group of 30 or so guys that were there that he is considering a run for the White House and that they could go tell their friends," a source in the room told CNN. The Wall Street Journal first reported the comments. 
 
 Though his loyalists and supportive donors have floated his name as a potential candidate for the better part of a year, Romney himself has been more reticent about mounting another White House bid after his 2008 and 2012 losses. 
 
 But Romney's outlook has changed in recent weeks, according to people who have spoken with him recently, and he seems to be more serious than ever before. 
 
 Romney has kept in close touch with his donors, many of whom have become close friends over two presidential cycles, according to one source close to Romney who was not at the meeting in New York but is familiar with his thinking. Romney hosts an annual retreat each year in Park City for policy discussions—and used the two most recent gatherings in 2013 and 2014 to introduce them to potential 2016 presidential candidates including Rand Paul and Chris Christie. (Jeb Bush was invited to speak last summer, but could not attend because of previous commitments, including his father's birthday). 
 
 Many of Romney's New York donors, who are in frequent touch with him, had suggested a lunch or get-together when Romney was in New York, which resulted in the meeting with donors on Friday as he was on his way back from Charlie Baker's swearing in as the new governor of Massachusetts, this person said. 
 
 Former aides to Romney have said that his thinking about the race has evolved over several months, particularly after he had time to reflect on being back on the campaign trail for the midterm races. As former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has moved toward a bid, many donors had pressed him for a signal about his level of interest. 
 
 "He had not closed his mind on this, and today was the day that he decided to share that with the group of people he was with," the source familiar with Romney's thinking said. "His conviction that the country is on the wrong track is very strong. He's very concerned with America's role in the world. Nothing has changed on that." 
 
 As far as re-entering the field for the Republican nomination, the source said, "He knows he would have to earn it, he knows no one is handed the nomination, but he's giving it some thought....His head hasn't changed, I think he was just formalizing it a little bit," at the Friday meeting, the source said, to let donors know he was considering a bid more seriously. 
 
 Romney's comments come in the wake of Jeb Bush's stepped-up political activity. Bush, Romney and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie — all favorites of the Republican establishment and New York donor community — would presumably draw from the same pool of financial backers. 
 
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 "I think he is serious," said the person at the New York meeting. "One of the first things he said he said was, 'People ask me, do you want to be president? Well, yes, I did run twice." 
 
 Romney said that his wife, Ann, is "very encouraging" about 2016, the source said, but his sons are split about the idea, the source who was in the room said. 
 
 The source familiar with Romney's thinking also said Ann is "supportive of it" if that's what Romney wants. "I don't think he would have come to this without talking to his family." 
 
 At the heart of this, this source adds, is that "the state of the country hasn't settled for him. he won't be happy sitting on the sidelines." 
 
 The former Massachusetts governor told the crowd that a potential campaign would "have to have a positive message." He also said, somewhat obviously, that he "would run a different campaign from what he's run in the past." 
 
 Romney entertained questions about the rest of the potential 2016 field but had only positive things to say about his would-be rivals, the source said. 
 
 The news comes after a week chock-full of high-profile potential Republican presidential candidates taking the first steps toward announcing their candidacy for the 2016 election. 
 
 Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush launched a Leadership PAC this week, just days after resigning his position on various corporate and nonprofite boards. And former GOP presidential contender Mike Huckabee quit his show on Fox News last week to give 2016 some serious consideration. 
 
 And CNN reported Wednesday that Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is assembling a team for a potential 2016 presidential bid. 
 
 The revelation of Romney's overtures to top GOP donors is yet another addition to the long-term game of footsy Romney has played with the media and other Republicans who would like to know whether Romney is in or out -- though it's certainly the most definitive and serious indication that Romney might actually launch a third presidential bid. 
 
 Romney was rumored to be through with his presidential ambitions after a grueling 2012 run, but this summer he made several head nods that he was considering. 
 
 Romney told the Washington Post this summer that "we'll have to see what happens" and said in another interview that the chances were very slim -- but conceded there was nonetheless always a chance. 
 
 "We never say never," Ann Romney said on CNN's "New Day" this summer. ||||| Shortly after Election Day in 2012, a Mitt Romney supporter moaned to POLITICO about the failed GOP nominee’s performance: “We had no message, and we gave it to the worst communicator in the world.” 
 
 Two years later, Romney is mulling over another campaign for the White House, and this time, he says, things will be different. 
 
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 In meetings with and individual calls to donors, supporters and former staffers, Romney is making it clear that he is likely to run, putting his time frame for a decision at “weeks, not months.” 
 
 Romney, who made a fortune in the financial sector and was cast by Democrats in 2012 as a heartless businessman, wants to make tackling poverty — a key issue for his 2012 vice presidential running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan — one of the three pillars of his campaign. The former Massachusetts governor also says he’ll have a different communications staff and hopes to show voters a version of himself they didn’t get to see last time. (There’s even a Netflix documentary he can point to.) 
 
 (Also on POLITICO: 2016 hopefuls hit Obama's Paris absence) 
 
 Yet interviews with more than a dozen staffers and supporters who have recently spoken with Romney reveal conversations in which he promises a “different” path forward without providing specifics about what that means as far as mechanics and his own sometimes gaffe-ridden performance. And, aside from most of his communications team, Romney would still be expected to bring back the majority of his old staff, sources said. 
 
 “He really has to show people that he’d do it differently, rather than just say he’d do it differently,” said a former top adviser to Romney, one of half a dozen alumni to speak Monday with POLITICO. “He needs to assure folks he’d take a much more direct approach to laying out the vision for his campaign versus having those decisions driven by a bunch of warring consultants.” 
 
 Romney announced Friday that he is considering running in 2016, in what would be his third attempt at the presidency. The first time, in 2008, he ran as a conservative. His decision came after Jeb Bush, the former governor of Florida, said he was actively exploring a White House run. On Monday, Ryan announced that he will not run for president, possibly an indicator that he believes Romney is serious. 
 
 “A lot of people don’t think Jeb has the fire in the belly,” said one uncommitted Republican donor, who expressed “shock” that Romney is considering another race. 
 
 (Also on POLITICO: Cruz on Romney: No need for 'mushy middle') 
 
 Romney didn’t leave much in the ashes of 2012 that was worth replicating. He was a skilled debater, but his campaign was criticized for its threadbare messaging, staff insularity, a lack of data savvy and a fatalistic approach to the press. Yet even that failed effort was meticulously prepared for by Romney, with years of tending to donors’ neuroses and staffers’ concerns. 
 
 And amid growing speculation that Romney would jump in the 2016 fray, doubts have persisted about his ability to improve his own performance. His own party’s chairman, Reince Priebus, responded to calls for Romney to run again at a recent donor luncheon in Manhattan by pointing out the candidate’s many self-inflicted wounds. 
 
 Romney and his top aides have often attributed the loss to events out of their control. Within two weeks of the loss, Romney bluntly told a large number of donors on a conference call that Obama unfairly put his thumb on the scale with policy “gifts” to key constituencies, “especially the African-American community, the Hispanic community and young people.” 
 
 “In each case, they were very generous in what they gave to those groups,” he said at the time. 
 
 (Also on POLITICO: Ryan says he won't run for president) 
 
 Romney allies have also insisted to the former Massachusetts governor, and he has echoed in conversations he’s had, that the main reason he lost in 2012 was that he was running against an incumbent president, and that he would have an easier path in 2016. In 2012, Romney veered well to the right to win over primary voters, moves many believe cost him in the general — but he has scoffed in private conversations at Bush’s insistence that he won’t do the same in order to win the nomination. 
 
 Regardless, “I think he’d be the first person to tell you, absolutely,” he needs to run a better race, said Robert O’Brien, a California-based Republican donor who was recently courted by Texas Sen. Ted Cruz but who decided to wait to see where Romney stands. O’Brien, who said he’d received a call from Romney in recent days, added: “If he decides to run, I think you’ll see a different campaign and I think you’ll see a campaign in which the American people get to really know Mitt Romney as a person.” 
 
 Bush and Romney already are calling many of the same donors and operatives, in some cases within hours of each other, to make their pitch, round up support and lay claim to staff. Romney has also called at least two key officials in the early primary state of New Hampshire, former Sen. Judd Gregg and his successor, current Sen. Kelly Ayotte, sources said. Romney and Bush are among prominent figures invited to the Republican National Committee meeting in San Diego this week, RNC spokesman Sean Spicer confirmed to POLITICO. Bush is not planning to attend the meeting, an aide to the former Florida governor said. 
 
 Romney, who just a year ago categorically ruled out a third White House run, is to some extent playing catch-up. Some of his former supporters are lining up behind Bush for 2016, and some staffers are reluctant to join him again. Romney has been burning up the phones to top members of his old finance team, and he hopes to bring back a majority of his old staff, sources said. 
 
 “There’ll be a lot of old faces and some new faces,” said one source who’s spoken with him. 
 
 Romney has been in frequent touch with his longtime adviser Stuart Stevens, although it isn’t clear whether he would be brought back in the chief strategist role he held last time. But Russ Schriefer, Stevens’ partner and ad-maker, is aligned with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. People like former RNC official Ray Washburne have committed to playing key roles in a Christie campaign. And a number of donors say some Romney alumni would sooner back Christie than Bush, who’s had past friction with Romney. 
 
 Polls show Romney as the leader on the GOP side and faring better in a general election than Bush. But the reality is likely to be harsher than the numbers suggest. For one thing, the emerging GOP field is large and includes several potentially strong contenders from gubernatorial and senatorial ranks. 
 
 “It would be difficult, hand-to-hand trench warfare,” said Dave Carney, a New Hampshire-based strategist who was Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s top adviser in 2012. “The class of competitors this time around are a class or two above the 2012 group of contenders. Misreading of polling data is a common affliction that unsuccessful, and too many successful politicians suffer. His first hurdle would be to explain how this campaign would be different then his last two failures.” 
 
 A senior Romney adviser in 2012 said the former Massachusetts governor would approach the primaries very differently “by virtue of experience,” determined not to utter the kind of self-destructive statements he did last time in order to outflank his challengers on the right. For instance, in 2012, he suggested pursuing policies that lead undocumented immigrants to “self-deport” — a remark that cost him badly among Hispanic voters in the general election. 
 
 Besides a focus on helping the poor, the other two pillars he’s told people he would build a new campaign around are supporting the middle class and a muscular foreign policy, an area where he believes he was strongly vindicated from his 2012 campaign against President Barack Obama. Romney, for instance, warned about the strategic threat posed by Russia, which many at the time thought was an overstatement. The multimillionaire also is cognizant of the damage done last time by his derisive remarks about “47 percent” of the population, whom he cast as moochers. 
 
 “If he does go forward, there will be heavier doses of foreign policy,” a senior adviser told POLITICO. “That was a strength of his last campaign. A lot of what he said has been borne out … All that feeds into a narrative.” 
 
 “The economic focus has to be different as well,” he added. “There will be more focus on mobility and softer economic issues. There will also probably be more on upward mobility and opportunity.” 
 
 Another senior official on the 2012 Romney effort said the campaign then struggled to scale up after it secured the GOP nomination. He believes a 2016 campaign would be organized from the start with a general election victory in mind. 
 
 “The value for the Obama campaign in ’12 was the muscle memory,” the adviser said. “They’d gone through the battles together and had trust. That doesn’t mean you have to have the exact same team. You need the structure, but you don’t need the exact same people. In ’12, the Obama people could tap into the talent they had in 2008. In many ways, we have that type of apparatus in place for Mitt.” 
 
 Advisers mulling over a 2016 Romney redux also hope the campaign will be smarter about spending. “Institutionally, they could raise the same amount as last time,” a senior Romney alum said. “But, by having a team that knows where the pitfalls are, we could be 30 percent more efficient.” 
 
 Another senior adviser who just spent time with Romney described him as genuinely relaxed and much looser than during the marathon of the 2012 campaign, but that he appears “very serious” about running again. The adviser said Romney is not as worried about money and support materializing as the coverage of the last few days suggests. 
 
 “His assumption is, if he decides to run, a lot of that stuff will come online,” the adviser said. “He has a desire to be president. I’m not sure if he has an overwhelming desire to run for president. I tend to think this will flush out over the next 10 days.” 
 
 Longtime Romney confidant Eric Fehrnstrom said it is premature to sketch out what a campaign organization would look like when the former governor has not made a final decision on whether to run. But he spoke to why Romney is giving the race another look. 
 
 “Our economy is still not as strong as it could be, long-term growth is in doubt, workers have gone a long time without pay raises and can’t save for a kid’s college or their own retirement, and around the world there’s deep concern that as America’s leadership has unraveled, hostile forces have filled the vacuum,” Fehrnstrom wrote in an email. “Mitt Romney spoke to these issues in the last campaign, he was right on many of them, and I expect if he runs again they will form the core of another campaign for president.” 
 
 James Carville, a longtime backer of Hillary Clinton, the presumed front-runner for the Democratic nomination in 2016, said Team Romney is engaging in wishful thinking. He not only has fared poorly with minority voters, a growing bloc, in the past, but the economy has improved significantly since 2012. Carville pointed out that Romneyites like to say what he got right but leave out that he predicted economic calamity if Obama was reelected. 
 
 “We know the demographics are going the wrong way for him, and if the trend is any good, it looks like the economy is going to be going the wrong way [for Romney too],” Carville said. He added that more generally, “2016 is going to be a challenging year for Republicans.” 
 
 But another alumnus of Romney’s presidential campaigns said a new effort would “tell the story of Mitt better.” Several Romney veterans recalled how well the accounts from parishioners in Romney’s Mormon community resonated with voters who had been bombarded with ads about his tenure at Bain Capital. 
 
 The documentary “Mitt,” released by Netflix last year, further improved Romney’s image. Campaign operatives had resisted giving the filmmakers access, but Romney’s five sons opened up family meetings and other private conversations. The result was a production that humanized him and his Mormon faith. 
 
 “The movie really pulled the curtain back,” one Romney alum said. “It’s a good story to tell. We didn’t do that last time, and it allowed Obama to paint a caricature. We’d show him as a person more. In the first campaign, we were so afraid to even mention the ‘M’ word. Now it doesn’t even matter.” 
 
 Tom Rath, a New Hampshire-based Republican and a longtime Romney backer who also received a call from him, said he believes the different circumstances of 2016 versus 2012 are in Romney’s favor. He also expects Romney to make up his mind “sooner rather than later.” 
 
 “The context of this campaign will be very different than the one we ran last time,” Rath said. “There’s not going to be a lot of surprises to him.” 
 
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– Heads up, Jeb Bush and Chris Christie: Mitt Romney said today that he may run for president in 2016, the Wall Street Journal reports. Sources say he made the announcement at a meeting with Republican donors in New York City. "Mitt told the group of 30 or so guys that were there that he is considering a run for the White House and that they could go tell their friends," a source from the meeting tells CNN. Romney cited trouble overseas and the long-term economy as motives for running, but gave no timetable for deciding. Romney had been iffy on whether to run after losing in 2008 and 2012, CNN says, but had a change of mind over the past few weeks. "I think he is serious," says the CNN source. "One of the first things he said he said was, 'People ask me, do you want to be president? Well, yes, I did run twice.'" Romney reportedly says his wife Ann is "very encouraging" but his sons are divided over a 2016 run. A Romney candidacy could "upend the emerging GOP field" just as donors are gathering around Bush, the Journal says. A GOP funder at Romney's meeting, Alex Nabab, had been "part of" a recent Bush event, and Bush allies have expressed frustration over GOP donors holding out in the hope of a Romney run, Politico reports.