A piece of paperwork turns up that indicates Sen. Tom Cotton was on hand when the Club for Growth hosted potential presidential candidates in Palm Beach, Fla., at the end of February.

Six presidential candidates were\among the attendees at the winter conference/candidate beauty pageant — Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, Scott Walker, Ted Cruz, Mike Pence and Bobby Jindal.

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The event was closed to most media, though Fox News naturally got a shot at the three-day meeting. Politico’s account mentions the Republican candidates — and mentions the financial clout Jackson T. Stephens Jr. of Little Rock swings with the anti-tax group of wealth conservatives — but made no mention of Tom Cotton except for noting he had received Club for Growth backing in his Senate race.

But Cotton disclosed in a Senate filing earlier this week that Club for Growth paid for him  to attend the event — $757 for air and ground transportation, $475 for lodging and $225 for meals.

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Presumably the various candidates had a chance to size Cotton up for a No. 2 spot on the 2016 ticket. Or maybe vice versa. He’s a young man in a hurry.

SPEAKING OF EXCLUSIVE CONFABS: The Center for Public Integrity, relying also on disclosure documents, found 11 presidential candidates, but not Tom Cotton, at the American Enterprise Institute’s secret get-together a few days later a little farther up the Atlantic seaboard.

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