Phil Ammann
As the rumbles of a Jeb Bush presidential campaign grow louder, Ben White of POLITICO reports the former Florida governor is contemplating a preemptive disclosure of a decade’s worth of personal tax returns.
The move could help eliminate comparisons to Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican nominee who held off until September 2012 – releasing only two years, at that. Romney buckled under pressure to divulge his wide-ranging wealth coming from both Democrats and members of his own party.
As Romney waited, White notes that Democrats successfully portrayed him as an “out-of-touch multi-millionaire” with something to hide.
Bush’s campaign, while not yet official, is already working on a narrative that will appeal to the middle and working class. He is also attempting to crush any effort by either Democrats (or potential rivals within the GOP) to cast the former governor as a wealthy elitist with extensive Wall Street ties.
As the latest stage of this endeavor is the “Right to Rise” political action committee, which Bush launched this week. Bush’s introduction of the committee was complete with a casual direct-to-the-camera Facebook video (in both English and Spanish) filmed on a New York City street.
The “Rise” website, White says, is a clear attempt to tap into the nation’s growing sense of economic populism.
“While the last eight years have been pretty good ones for top earners,” says the site’s mission statement, “They’ve been a lost decade for the rest of America.”
Although Bush continues to fight back against depictions of him being part of a blue-blood political dynasty with deep Wall Street roots, he might find that push back effort increasingly challenging.
For example, this week Bush held a Greenwich, Conn. fundraising reception for his newly created PAC. Greenwich, where some of the nation’s wealthiest financiers live, was also home to Prescott Bush, family patriarch and former U.S. Senator.
While there are no set plans for releasing returns or any other financial information, Bush supporters say such disclosures are nothing new. As a candidate and then Florida governor Bush released tax returns covering more than 20 years. They believe he would be ready to do the same for a presidential campaign.
“People forget that he spent eight years as governor in a state with the most pro-transparency laws in the country,” one Bush confidant told POLITICO. “He is used to living in the sunshine. Most of the other likely candidates aren’t.”A
Presidential candidates have no requirement to release tax returns, but for decades, many have – to one degree or another.
