Rand Paul's Growing List of Establishment Advisors

In a feature on Rand, Politico tells us that Rand will headquarter any presidential campaign from Louisville, Kentucky:

Before zeroing in on Louisville as Paul’s likely campaign headquarters, advisers reached out to veterans of 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney’s campaign to consult on the advisability and specific requirements of running a national campaign from outside Washington, deciding the symbolic importance of basing the campaign in his home state outweighed any concerns about easy access for Washington-based staffers and political operatives from across the country.

The magazine also reports that an official announcement of a Rand run for president would occur in the spring:

 Paul reiterated his long-standing assertion that he won’t officially decide about a presidential run until the spring, but his advisers have already laid out a timetable: They expect the campaign will be a “go” by mid-April, with an announcement as quickly after that as his staff can put together a fly-around to the early states.

 He is expected to announce he is running for -re-election to the Senate, within the next few weeks.

And P  provides a summary of the people that Rand has surrounding him, which is becoming very establishment heavy:

Headed into the presidential campaign, leading Paul advisers include Jesse Benton, a longtime Paul family operative, who lives in Louisville; Doug Stafford, who is considered Paul’s chief strategist and leading planner of his presidential campaign; Nate Morris, an entrepreneur who recently was named to Fortune’s “40 Under 40” list and has been a Paul door-opener in Silicon Valley and beyond; and Doug Wead, who has been helping with outreach to evangelicals. His media consultant is Rex Elsass, CEO of the Ohio-based The Strategy Group for Media.

In the states with early presidential primaries and caucuses, the team includes: John Yob, a Michigan consultant and former John McCain operative who is RAND PAC’s national political director; in New Hampshire, Mike Biundo, who managed Rick Santorum’s 2012 presidential campaign; and in Iowa, Steve Grubbs and A.J. Spiker, both former chairs of the state Republican Party.

His top outside foreign-policy advisers are Lorne Craner, a former assistant secretary of state for President George W. Bush; and Elise Jordan, a former speechwriter for Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.