Peter Schorsch
The Jeb Bush campaign will run an ad in New Hampshire’s biggest newspaper Monday lauding the presidential candidate’s achievements as Florida governor.
The New Hampshire Union Leader ad will pit Bush’s achievements against the other governors going after the Republican nod in 2016 – namely Ohio Gov. John Kasich, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.
The hockey themed ad says Bush scores a “hat trick” as the best tax cutter, spending cutter and job creator among the five candidates, though whether the ad is the slap shot to the teeth or an optimistic spin on his time in office is open to interpretation.
When Bush has made the same claims in the past, PolitiFact Florida gave each of them a “half true” rating. Bush’s claim of $19.3 billion in tax cuts during his tenure as Florida governor includes the federal repeal of the estate tax, which economists say he can’t take credit for.
The balanced budget claim, while true, is required by the state constitution, and his job creation numbers leave out his first year on the job. Including that year puts Florida job creation in second place among states, behind California.
While the numbers certainly beat other governors running for president, the ad ignores the biggest threat to Bush’s White House ambitions: Donald Trump. The billionaire businessman has been at the top of most primary polls for months, with a recent poll by CNN/ORC giving Trump a 32 percent share of likely Republican voters.
Bush got 9 percent support in that poll, which surveyed 474 Republican voters from Sept. 4 through Sept. 8. The numbers put him in third place behind Trump and retired Florida neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson, who polled at 19 percent. Bush’s numbers are down from a high of 17 percent in late June.
