Jac VerSteeg
There is speculation that former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s business ventures could be a drag on his presidential aspirations. Joseph Tanfani of the Los Angeles Times reported that Jeb, to reduce the chance that he will suffer the kind of attacks endured by 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney, is giving up gigs such as serving on the board of Tenet Healthcare, “a company that has profited from Obamacare.”
Jeb’s step back from lucrative roles in international banking and offshore investments is prudent. But it is hard to think that voters open to voting for a Republican and a Bush would balk at voting for Jeb because of how he has made his money.
Jeb would have to lie, cheat and steal – and leave a clear trail of damning proof – before his voters would care. Even then, it’s not certain he’d suffer a major hit.
Consider Florida. Consider Gov. Rick Scott’s re-election. And his initial election in 2010.
In both races Democrats hammered at Scott’s record with Columbia/HCA. They portrayed him as nothing short of a crook who looted Medicare dollars, benefitted enormously and then repeatedly took the Fifth to avoid responsibility.
It might be ironic that Scott used millions of his allegedly ill-gotten fortune to counteract Democrats’ accusations. But voters don’t care about such irony, and Scott was victorious. With his core voters, the charges didn’t stick, or they didn’t matter.
Florida will be a huge swing state in the 2016 presidential election. Bush hasn’t faced voters here since 2006. But an electorate that re-upped Scott certainly will be favorably disposed toward Jeb. His major liability in the primary, amazingly, could be that he is not conservative enough.
Voters for whom Jeb’s business dealings would be a deal-breaker won’t in any case be assuaged by his decision to back away from business ties. In fact, for them Jeb’s actions just add the dimension of hypocrisy. Jeb can counter that accusation by correctly pointing out that a full-time presidential candidate does not have time to pursue complicated business interests.
If Sen. Hillary Clinton is the Democratic nominee, her own past – and her husband’s past – will be a bigger problem than Jeb’s business ties. If Jeb cashed in on his political clout after leaving office, Bill Clinton certainly has done the same.
In any case, it is not clear how much Mitt Romney’s wealth and offshore accounts, in and of themselves, hurt his presidential chances. Romney’s clueless remarks secretly videotaped at a fundraiser near Boca Raton provided the focus that really hurt him. When he portrayed 47 percent of Americans as entitled leeches on the government dole, he crystallized his own image as a rich, entitled twit whose company, Bain Capital, had laid off thousands of workers.
Jeb Bush is not likely to duplicate that kind of gaffe. And he has not been a serially heartless employer. Furthermore, Jeb’s persona is not as open to accusations of unearned financial privilege. If Jeb displays arrogance, it’s not wealth-based arrogance like Romney’s but wonky, policy-based arrogance. He knows he’s right. He knows he’s smarter.
And, politically, Jeb is smarter than Romney, who not only had to run from business dealings but also from his record as a relatively liberal Massachusetts governor who pioneered a version of Obamacare. Jeb is unlikely to torture himself into such untenable positions.
For many voters, Jeb’s biggest problem will be his last name. His money and how he got it aren’t going to matter.
Jac Wilder VerSteeg is editor of Context Florida.
