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Jeb Bush’s ties to donors put rivals in a bind

Published: Dec 22, 2014 6:43 a.m. ET

Network of GOP contributors could hamper other Republicans’ fund-raising



Jeb Bush’s announcement that he will explore a White House bid threatens years of painstaking spadework by other Republicans who have cultivated many of the wealthy donors loyal to the former Florida governor’s family.

Bush is heir to a vaunted network of Republican contributors built over his family’s two presidencies, his own governorship and other campaigns. It is one of the most formidable assets in GOP politics and could hamper the fund-raising of Republican potential rivals, including Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

The donors’ ties to the Bushes also could undercut possible interest in a third White House campaign by Mitt Romney. If the 2012 GOP presidential nominee runs, he would compete for the same contributors, many of whom helped finance his latest campaign.

Early signs suggest that devotion to the Bush clan may trump newer relationships. Two leading members of Rubio’s Senate fundraising team—lobbyist Charlie Black and Dirk Van Dongen, the head of a trade association—have suggested they would lean toward the former governor if both men pursued the Republican presidential nomination.

Black has served on the steering committee of Rubio’s political-action committee for a few years, but said, “That’s just to help raise money. That’s not a presidential campaign.”

Black served as a spokesman for Bush’s father during his failed 1992 re-election campaign for president and advised both of his brother’s White House bids. “I’m obviously very high on him and very close to the family,” he said of Jeb Bush, who said last week that he plans to launch a political committee to “actively explore” a 2016 bid.

Van Dongen, who leads a group of donors raising money for Rubio’s 2016 re-election and PAC, has already told the senator’s team that he would raise money for Bush if the former governor runs for president.

A spokesman for Rubio, a one-time protégé of Bush’s, declined to comment on the senator’s fundraising. Appearing on NBC on Sunday, Rubio said he has yet to decide on a 2016 presidential run but said Bush would be “a very credible and strong candidate.”

Christie, who has said he would make a decision on 2016 early next year, has told donors that Bush’s entry wouldn’t keep him from a presidential run, people familiar with those talks said.

An expanded version of this story is available at WSJ.com.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/jeb-bushs-ties-to-donors-put-rivals-in-a-bind-2014-12-22?siteid=rss&rss=1