Mitch Perry
On the eve of Jeb Bush’s announcement Monday at Miami Dade Community College that he’s officially a candidate for the Republican nomination for president, his campaign has issued a list of Florida GOP lawmakers backing him in the race against Marco Rubio and the more than dozen other candidates in the race.
For starters, the entire Florida Cabinet is behind him: Attorney General Pam Bondi, CFO Jeff Atwater and Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam.
And from the Florida Congressional delegation, 11 of the 17 Republican office-holders are backing him, including Pinellas County’s 13th District Rep. David Jolly.
John Mica, Vern Buchanan, Ander Crenshaw, Carlos Curbelo, Mario Diaz Balart, Jeff Miller, John Mica, Illeana Ros-Lehtinen, Dennis Ross and Daniel Webster are behind Team Jeb.
Notable among the names not listed is Gov. Rick Scott, who has said he will not endorse before the March 15 Florida Presidential Primary. And why should be? By not endorsing, it allows him to be, if not a mini-kingmaker, at least someone with some influence.
The governor’s economic summit last week in Orlando brought seven presidential candidates (or potential candidates) to the Sunshine State (and one on videotape).
“Anything I can do to suck up to him and his donors I’ll do,” joked former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee at the summit, which as all good jokes, had a whiff of reality attached to it.
