Jeb Bush speaking at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference in Oklahoma City last month. Photo courtesy of Michael Vadon via Wiki Commons.
By Francisco Alvarado
Florida Center for Investigative Reporting
Jeb Bush still hasn’t officially declared his candidacy for the 2016 Republican presidential primary, but the ex-Florida governor remains the front-runner to land the G.O.P nomination.
Why else would New York magazine dedicate so much ink on a lengthy profile telling readers Jeb is starting to lose ground to other Republican contenders, especially his one-time ally in the state house, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio?
If you haven’t lived in Florida for the past 30 years, Jennifer Senior’s story is a decent primer on Bush featuring his closest friends and supporters, as well as adversaries, pollsters and respected journalists from around the state who covered his tenure as the top man in Tallahassee. There are no smoking guns or explosive revelations. Most of the piece rehashes Bush’s technocratic rule as governor and his dealings with two questionable companies.
The first was MWI, a company sued by the U.S. Department of Justice for allegedly paying a middleman $25 million to bribe officials in Nigeria to get government loans. Bush brokered deals to sell water pumps overseas for MWI. The other company was InnoVida, which scammed millions of dollars in earthquake relief funds in Haiti by promising to build temporary houses for victims. InnoVida never built the homes and its CEO, Claudio Osorio, was convicted of fraud.
Bush served on the board of directors and was paid $469,000 (of which he returned roughly $279,000) as a consultant by InnoVida. Bush has always maintained he had no knowledge of Osorio’s misdeeds until it was brought to his attention by fellow InnoVida board member Chris Korge, a Miami businessman who ironically is one of Hillary Clinton’s biggest fundraisers, according to Senior’s story.
Although the New York piece does have some money quotes.
For example, former state legislator and Democrat Dan Gelber on the whole “Bush-Rubio-friends-to-foes” media narrative:
“Jeb wasn’t Marco’s mentor. Jeb was the general. All of those guys were lieutenants. Marco was an important ally, but he was fungible.”
Miami-based political campaign strategist David Custin on Bush entering a much different Republican landscape from the one when he left office:
“The fact of the matter is that Rubio was on a statewide ballot more recently. There are millions of registered voters who’ve never voted for Bush. And there was no tea-party wing when Jeb ran. There is now, and Rubio connects to them.”
And billionaire automotive dealer Norman Braman, who is betting on Rubio, on almost doing a real estate deal with Bush:
“Actually, he showed us a house once in Miami. It was many years ago. The late 80’s, I think. It was a special house.”
In other Florida news:
- The special state legislative session is underway and it appears Gov. Rick Scott’s promise to cut taxes by nearly $700 million has been sliced nearly in half. The Miami Herald reports the House Finance & Tax Committee approved tax cuts with a two-year value of $436 million.
- Ten years since the last hurricane hit Florida, the state is more vunerable than ever to catastrophic damage by a major storm, according to the Tampa Bay Times. The state’s booming real estate market has led to construction of more homes along the coastal areas that are likeliest to be destroyed by a severe hurricane.