Herman Cain's announcement that he is suspending, rather than terminating, his presidential campaign appears to give him greater flexibility in the months ahead to transfer leftover funds to a candidate or political committee of his choice.
That financial flexibility, as well as the potential to benefit by picking up Cain's supporters, was not lost on the other Republican hopefuls, who Sunday morning continued to heap praise on the embattled former Godfather's Pizza executive.
Recent polls suggest that former House Speaker Newt Gingrich may stand to benefit the most from Cain's departure from the race, but several other Republican contenders expressed optimism that they might win over the Cain faithful.
Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, who surged to second place in Saturday's Des Moines Register poll of likely Iowa Republican caucus-goers, said he's "optimistic that we'll pick up some votes" from Cain supporters.
"There are a lot of people who call themselves tea party people that did like the independent-mindedness of Herman Cain," Paul said on CNN's "State of the Union." "So I think that we'll probably do better, even though some people are saying, 'Oh, no, they're all going to go to so-and-so.' We're paying a lot of attention to that, because obviously they're going to go somewhere in the next week or so. That's going to happen."
Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., told CNN in an interview after Paul's that Cain "brought a really important, exciting, energetic voice to the race, and I think a lot of people are going to be very sorry to see him go."
"We've been talking with the Herman Cain campaign, and I look forward to having a full conversation with him," Bachmann said. "One thing that we've seen is that a lot of Herman Cain supporters have been calling our office, and they've been coming over to our side. ... They saw Herman Cain as an outsider, and I think they see that my voice will be the one that would be most reflective of his."
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's campaign spokeswoman, Andrea Saul, said that "one of the qualities that Mitt Romney shares with Herman Cain is they both are Washington outsiders with strong private-sector job experience."
An Iowa poll released Saturday showed that despite his problems, Cain was favored by 8 percent of likely caucus participants, a large enough chunk of the pie to make a big difference for the beneficiary. Gingrich was the second choice of 28 percent of Cain's backers in a Bloomberg poll last month, followed by Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Romney and Paul.
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