Towery to Newsmax: Peter King Could Be ‘Right Man, at the Right Time’ for GOP in 2016

Towery to Newsmax: Peter King Could Be ‘Right Man, at the Right Time’ for GOP in 2016

Rep. Peter King of New York, who confirmed to Newsmax on Thursday that he is seriously considering a bid for the Republican nomination for president in 2016, would be a “Hail Mary candidate,” debate expert and pollster Matt Towery said.

“It’s one of those where you throw the ball up, you run — and if you happen to catch it, you might just be the right man at the right time,” Towery, who heads the polling and political information firm InsiderAdvantage, told Newsmax in an exclusive interview late Thursday. “And if anybody can do that, and pull that off, it would be Peter King.

“He’s been around, he knows what he’s doing. He’s no dummy,” Towery said. “I understand why he’s running — and I wouldn’t discount him.”

King, who represents New York’s Third District, told “The Steve Malzberg Show” on Newsmax TV that he was weighing a White House run.

“Very honestly, I’m going to look at it. … I’m going to look at this. I’m going to take it seriously, see where it goes,” King, a former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, told Malzberg.

The disclosure came after Newsmax reported on Wednesday that King was being encouraged by friends in and outside the Empire State to seek the GOP nod and that he “acts interested.”

Towery, an author and Newsmax contributor, said King’s 11 terms in the House and direct style made him “more of an establishment candidate — establishment with a tinge of moderate, or to the left of moderate, on the Republican scale.

“He is very outspoken, and he is — definitely on the Republican scale — not considered a conservative on most issues,” Towery said.

And, as such, King provides an alternative to such tea party-backed candidates as Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Rand Paul of Kentucky.

“He’s one of the individuals trying to offer an alternative to what some Republicans view as the extremely conservative wing of the party,” Towery said. “He’s the anti-Cruz, anti-Rand Paul candidate. He makes that clear from the get-go.”

King’s greatest challenge in any White House quest, however, lies in the arduous and expensive primary process, Towery said.

“He can be viable in Iowa, assuming he can raise the money. He can certainly be viable in New Hampshire, although he’s probably too left of center on the Republican scale there. He’ll get just annihilated in South Carolina, but if he can get to Florida, he certainly would be a viable candidate,” he said.