Right Web

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In January 2007, after eight years in office, Jeb Bush left the governorship of Florida as one of the most popular executives in the state’s history.1 The brother of President George W. Bush and son of 41st president George H.W. Bush, John Ellis “Jeb” Bush is part of a political dynasty that has been more than half a century in the making if one includes the first President Bush’s father, Sen. Prescott Sheldon Bush, a Republican who represented Connecticut in the U.S. Senate from 1952 to 1963.2

Jeb has maintained staunchly conservative views throughout his political career, and at one point in the late 1990s seems to have been considered a potentially more influential political ally than his brother by the neoconservatives who founded the Project for the New American Century (PNAC). Commenting on the signatories to PNAC’s 1997 founding statement of principles, Jim Lobe and Michael Flynn wrote, “Ironically, virtually the only signatory who has not played a leading role since the letter was released has been Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who in 1997 apparently looked to [William] Kristol and [Robert] Kagan more presidential than his brother George.”3

Since he left the governor’s office in early 2007, Bush has remained mostly out of the political spotlight. However, early in the 2008 presidential campaign, his name had been floated by some observers as a possible candidate for the number two slot on the 2008 Republican presidential ticket alongside Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), whom he endorsed for president in February 2008.4 Discussing McCain’s options, conservative Washington Post columnist George Will suggested that having the popular former governor of Florida on the bill could strengthen the Republican ticket. However, added Will, “it might seem tribal to have a Bush on the national ballot for a seventh time in eight elections.”5

After working on his father’s first failed presidential bid in 1980, Jeb Bush moved to Florida and joined a real estate company, the Codina Group. His political career began in earnest in 1984, when he was appointed chairman of the Dade County Republican Party. However, his influence stretched beyond state borders. According to the Guardian, in 1985 Jeb Bush played a behind-the-scenes role in the Iran-Contra affair, acting "as a conduit on behalf of supporters of the Nicaraguan contras with his father, then the vice president, and helped arrange for International Medical Centers to provide free medical treatment for the contras.”6 He also gained popularity with the Cuban exile community through his years in Florida. Bush’s ties with the community included serving on the Dade County Republican Party with Camilo Padreda, a former intelligence officer with the Batista dictatorship that was overthrown by Fidel Castro and who was later indicted for embezzlement. Bush also managed the campaign of Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), the first Cuban-American in Congress.7

Jeb Bush ran for the Florida governorship in 1994, losing by a small margin to the Democratic incumbent. Four years later, in his second bid for governor, which he won, Bush ran on a platform that emphasized traditionally Democratic Party issues such as education and Medicaid funding. Some argued that to win the governorship, Bush was trying to imitate then-President Bill Clinton, to which he responded: "I didn't emulate Bill Clinton ... but I do admire his awesome listening skills which is something that I have had to learn. That's not something that God gives you. It's really important to listen to people.”8

Among Bush’s more well-known initiatives during his eights years as governor were his efforts to reform the state education system by implementing a controversial voucher program allowing some students to transfer to private schools, his ending of affirmative action in university admissions and state contracting, and his policies aimed at shrinking state government, which led to politically costly public disputes. Reported the New York Times in June 2001, “Mr. Bush has variously alienated unions, trial lawyers and consumer groups with policies that eliminated job security for thousands of state workers, made it tougher to sue companies for product defects and gave the governor's office more control over judicial appointments and the governing of state universities.”9

Despite his sometimes divisive polices, as well as the controversial recount during the 2000 presidential vote, which saw many Black voters turned away at the polls after being cut from voter rolls, Bush ended his second term with high approval ratings. This fact is often highlighted by his supporters, who see in Jeb Bush a potential future presidential nominee. During the 2007 Conservative Summit in Washington, Bush was introduced by Ed Gillespie of the Republican National Committee, who said, "For those who are worried if you can put forward a vigorous conservative policy agenda in a state like Florida and still get elected and still be popular: Our keynote speaker left office with approval ratings above 60 percent.” Bush used the opportunity to burnish his rightist credentials, saying, "Don't take offense personally if I get mad at Congress. It's important for us to realize we lost [in the 2006 midterm election], and there are significant reasons that happened, but it isn't because conservatives were rejected. But it's because we rejected the conservative philosophy in this country.… If the promise of pork and more programs is the way Republicans think they'll regain the majority, then they've got a problem."10

Although not well known for his views on foreign affairs, Jeb Bush has been a supporter of hardline forces in the United States, including the neoconservative PNAC. In 1997, just before his successful run for governor, Bush was one of more than two dozen prominent political figures to sign PNAC’s founding statement of principles, which promoted a “Reaganite” vision of “American global leadership." Pointing to what it called "the essential elements of the Reagan administration's success"—"a strong military" ready to meet "present and future challenges"—the statement argued, "A Reaganite policy of military strength and moral clarity may not be fashionable today. But it is necessary if the United States is to build on the success of this past century and ensure our security and greatness in the next."11 Among PNAC's 25 charter signatories were several people who would become senior members of President George W. Bush’s administration, including Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, I. Lewis Libby, Zalmay Khalilzad, Peter Rodman, Paula Dobriansky, and Elliott Abrams.

Jeb Bush has consistently aligned himself with Israel’s hardline Likud Party. The day before Florida’s 2002 gubernatorial primary, then-Israeli Prime Minister and former Likud Party president Ariel Sharon appeared with Jeb Bush at a rally in Miami. “Israeli consular officials in Miami said today that Mr. Sharon's appearance had nothing to do with the re-election campaign of President Bush's brother,” the New York Times reported. “But Florida Democratic leaders denounced the appearance as the latest instance of what they described as White House intervention on behalf of Governor Bush's campaign.” In 2004, Bush again appeared with Sharon during a ceremony celebrating Israel’s 56th Independence Day, during which the governor expressed support for President Bush’s endorsement of Sharon’s so-called land for peace initiative in the West Bank and Gaza. He said, “This new United States policy, I think, will bring about the chance of lasting peace far better than the current status quo. And if there’s any attempt to impose a different vision, the United States is committed to intervene and provide support to the state of Israel.”12

Jeb Bush and his wife Columba both serve on the advisory board of the Drug Free America Foundation (DFAF), an anti-drug advocacy organization founded by Melvin Sembler, a major Republican Party donor and a prominent backer along with Sheldon Adelson of the hardline pro-Iraq War group Freedom’s Watch. DFAF is a successor to the controversial adolescent drug treatment program Straight Incorporated, which was founded by Sembler in the mid-1970s and closed down after a string of allegations and lawsuits over the improper treatment of children at its facilities.13