WASHINGTON (AP) – As they begin to shape their prospective bids for president, a group of ambitious Republican governors are eager to seize on voters' contempt for that most dirty of political words: “Washington.''

Yet even as they profess to loathe the nation's capital, those same governors have become regular Washington visitors. They come to woo veteran policy advisers, experienced operatives and savvy donors who would  serve as the backbone of their nascent White House campaigns.

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and at least three others _ Indiana's Mike Pence, Louisiana's Bobby Jindal and former Texas Governor Rick Perry have been in town in the past week alone.