They wrote big checks to Jeb Bush before they knew what type of candidate he would be. Now he may become the spoiler they fear.

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Last fall, when Jeb Bush was still mulling a bid for the presidency, Bloomberg Politics reported on what was considered then—and is still considered now—Bush’s greatest advantage as a presidential candidate: His ability to separate wealthy donors from vast sums of money quickly. “Unlike his competitors,” the thinking went, “Bush could lure donors off the fence in a hurry, without undergoing a hazing trial to test skill and stability.”

That is precisely what happened. Instants after announcing over the winter that he was “seriously considering the possibility of running for president,” Bush and his team set up the Right to Rise PAC and super PAC to serve as cash receptacles for eager GOP establishment donors. The money rolled in, and by July the super PAC announced that it had met its goal of raising more than $100 million in the first six months of the year. The popular former governor of Florida, who hadn’t run for office since his 2002 re-election bid, was able to take it to the bank based on his family’s success at winning presidential nominations and his ability to flatter the right crowds at events like the Wall Street Journal CEO Council. And indeed, he was able to bypass a thorough vetting of his aptitude for a presidential run en route to this fortune.

Whoops.

GOP donors have already
ensured that the Bush
campaign—even a clumsy,
poll-trailing Bush campaign
—can go deep into the
2016 primary calendar.

Because it’s clear right now that “a hazing trial to test skill and stability” was exactly what wealthy establishment Republican donors should have subjected Bush to before opening their checkbooks. It’s not a matter of sunk costs. The very wealthy, by their standards, can still buy politics on the cheap: losing a million bucks on a lemon of a candidate won’t send them to the poor house. But by imbuing the Bush operation with more primary cash than has ever been seen, they have already ensured that the Bush campaign—even a clumsy, poll-trailing Bush campaign—can go deep into the 2016 primary calendar. Unless Bush can really turn his image around, that means that the process of settling on an establishment candidate will play out far longer than the party may prefer—and perhaps even throw the nomination to the dreaded “outsider” candidate of the establishment’s worst nightmares. Go ahead, fellas: Clutch those pearls.