Jeb Bush
John Ellis "Jeb" Bush (born February 11, 1953) is the 43rd and current Governor of Florida.
Jeb Bush was elected in November 1998 and re-elected in November 2002, becoming the first Republican in the state's history to be re-elected as Governor. He is the younger brother of President George W. Bush, older brother of Neil Bush, and second son of former President George H. W. Bush.
Bush was born in Midland, Texas. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a bachelor's degree in Latin American Affairs from the University of Texas at Austin in 1973. He got his start in Florida by helping to start a real estate development company in 1980. From 1987 to 1988, he served as Florida's Secretary of Commerce. He launched an unsuccessful bid for the Governor's Office in 1994 against incumbent Democratic Governor Lawton Chiles. In 1998, he defeated Democratic opponent Buddy MacKay (55% to 45%) to become Governor, after courting moderate voters and Hispanics. Simultaneously, his brother George W. Bush won a landslide reelection victory for a second term as Governor of Texas, and the Bush brothers became the first siblings to govern two states at the same time since Nelson and Winthrop Rockefeller governed New York and Arkansas from 1967 to 1971.
Bush won re-election in 2002 against Democrat Bill McBride by a slightly greater margin than in 1998 (56% to 44%). He was active in the Project for the New American Century whose goal is to promote American global leadership.
He has been married to Columba Garnica Gallo since 1974 and has three children, George P., Noelle and John E. "Jeb", Jr. Jeb Bush speaks Spanish and English.
Jeb Bush is widely considered to be a rising star of the Republican Party; there is even speculation that he might run for President himself in 2008 though he has denied any interest in a White House bid. He is seen as extremely popular among Cubans in Florida (winning 80% of the Cuban vote in 2002), and moderately popular among non-Cuban Hispanics (56% in 2002, equaling the 56% he won statewide).
Controversy
Journalist Greg Palast has alleged that some African-American voters were deliberately prevented from voting in the 2002 election through the use of inaccurate voter "purge" lists of felons and deceased people. An October 2002 report in the Miami Herald details Bush's involvement in a questionable Nigerian deal, where money was allegedly used to bribe government officials for approval of a $74 million water pump sale.
There have also been claims of political hypocrisy. Jeb Bush's daughter Noelle Bush was sent into rehabilitation for her drug use, while Jeb Bush simultaneously called for harsh punishment of nonviolent drug offenders (and actively opposed a ballot initiative that would send them into treatment instead). Further, while Governor Bush has traditionally been a supporter of free enterprise, in the wake of hurricane Charley he criticized the price gouging which was a consequence of the free market. He described the practice of increasing the price of scarce goods in response to increased demand as "horrific," authorizing his Attorney General, Charlie Crist, to began proceedings against entrepreneurs engaged in price gouging.
The fact that the Bush family - President George H. W. Bush, President George W. Bush, Governor Jeb Bush - has been so heavily involved with high level politics has been likened to aristocratic conditions, which has created the George Bush family conspiracy theory and the prediction of the Bush dynasty.
See also
References
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| Wikiquote has a collection of Salon.com editorial by Arianna Huffington. "Gov. Jeb Bush calls for jail time for nonviolent drug offenders as his daughter gets sent to rehab."
- . By Andres Viglucci and Alfonso Chardy, Greg Palast about inaccurate voter "purge" lists. (Requires subscription.)
- . Article on so-called "price gouging" following hurricane Charley, from the Seatle Post-Intelligencer, August 19 2004
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