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The 2016 Republican presidential field could be bigger than any in recent memory thanks to a growing second tier of potential contenders.

While several prominent politicians already have insinuated themselves into the mix, from Ted Cruz to Rand Paul to Chris Christie to Jeb Bush, a number of under-the-radar names are now flirting with a 2016 candidacy.

They may be the long shots, but could shake things up -- by playing the spoiler in key primaries, positioning themselves as a potential running mate for the eventual nominee or even becoming a dark horse competitor in the final stage.

"It is definitely a new phenomenon," Ronald Reagan biographer Craig Shirley said of the increasingly crowded fields. (The 2008 and 2012 GOP contests were a political demolition derby.) "I don't think this has anything to do with the growth of the United States, you just have more people who are convinced they are qualified to run for president."

Some potential candidates are hardly new to the game, including Rick Santorum and others.

Longtime Republican pollster Glen Bolger said the lure is especially strong for pols who have inhabited that spotlight. "They figure, Barack Obama can come out of nowhere," he said, referring to the president's leap from one-term senator to president. "They think, 'I can be different, I can break the mold and get the nomination'."

He added: "[But] it's like catching lightning in a bottle. I won't say it can't be done, but that's what a lot of these candidates are relying on."

George Pataki, the three-term former New York governor, has said he's weighing a 2016 run, and he seems to be taking the idea seriously. He launched a super PAC called Americans for Real Change, which produced an ad this fall timed with appearances in New Hampshire. His message: fiscal responsibility, with a populist twist.

"Big government benefits the rich and powerful. They can afford to play the game -- you can't," he says in his televised ad. "It's time for a new America, with much smaller federal government. Washington can't run the economy, and shouldn't try to run our lives."

Asked about a possible bid, Pataki told Fox Business Network in November: "I'm thinking about it."

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Long-shot GOP candidates weigh spicing up 2016 race

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TIME Politics justice The Growing Republican Divide on Criminal Justice Reform Charles Koch, head of Koch Industries, on Feb 27, 2007. Bo RaderWichita Eagle/MCT via Getty Images GOP leaders are embracing reform, but the base remains committed to the party's law-and-order roots

Charles Koch, the billionaire industrialist and Republican Party donor, says he will make criminal justice reform a major cause in 2015. Over the next year, we are going to be pushing the issues key to this, which need a lot of work in this country, Koch said in an interview with the Wichita Eagle.

Koch is a big spenderand something of a bogeyman among many liberalsso this made news. The conservative mega-donor, a Politico story blared, is opening his wallet on an unexpected issue.

Except it shouldnt be unexpected. Koch is a libertarian, and libertarians have a history of opposing policies, such as mandatory minimum sentencing, that have made the U.S. incarceration rate the highest in the world. Whats perhaps more surprising is how Republican politicians from other parts of the spectrum are beginning to embrace criminal justice reform as well.

Over the past few years, GOP leaders in Washington and around the country have seized on justice reform as an issue that is both good policy and good politics. This view places them in conflict with many Republican voters, who still hew to the law-and-order beliefs on which the party had long been united. As a result, criminal-justice policy may emerge as one of the GOPs key fault lines in 2015, as tensions simmer amid ongoing protests over police behavior and the presidential primary begins to heat up.

Virtually all of the likely 2016 Republican field supports some element of criminal-justice reform. Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul is the most visible and least surprising proponent; as a libertarian-leaning conservative, he has staked his candidacy on the idea that the GOP must adjust its policies as the composition of the electorate changes. But Paul is hardly the only 2016 hopeful to plant a flag on the issue. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, a former federal prosecutor, has called for an end to the failed war on drugs and signed legislation that sent some offenders to rehab instead of prison.

Rick Perry, the conservative governor of Texas, has been among the nations top prison reformers, even winning a national award for his support of drug courts as an alternative to incarceration. Louisianas Bobby Jindal, another Republican governor eyeing a 2016 bid, pushed legislation that would boost the states drug rehab program and make some nonviolent offenders eligible for early release.

Conservatives in Congress also have an appetite for reform. Paul Ryan produced a white paper on poverty that includes proposals like giving judges sentencing flexibility for nonviolent offenders and letting some inmates earn time off their prison stays for successful participation in programs. Mike Lee, a Republican senator from Utah and a Tea Party favorite, was one of the original sponsors, with liberal senators Dick Durbin and Pat Leahy, of a bill called the Smarter Sentencing Act, which attempts to curtail the draconian sentencing that has left some 2.2 million Americans behind bars. Among the Republicans who have since signed on: Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, another presidential hopeful.

Why have Republicans come around on law-and-order issues? Part of it is politics. As the country grows younger and more diverse, GOP leaders grasp the need to reach out to the minority groups who are disproportionately affected by the excesses of the justice system. Its no surprise that Ryan, who knows firsthand how a lack of minority support can erode the viability of the Republican presidential ticket, spent time touring inner cities after 2012nor that Paul, who hopes to avoid the same fate in 16, launched a listening tour of his own.

There is also, Republicans note, a conservative case for overhauling a bloated prison system that drains resources and divides families. You want to talk about real conservative governance? Shut prisons down. Save that money, Perry said. A group called Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty inveighs against the failures of capital punishment, a process riddled with waste, inaccuracy and bias that does not square up with conservative ideology.

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The Growing Republican Divide on Criminal Justice Reform