Jeb Bush Speech Denouncing Lobbyists Was Organized By Corporate Lobbying Group (July 20)

[seafan]

The International Business Times is churning out fantastic investigative pieces on Jeb Bush's activities. Here is another one.

Mainstream is so busy trying to prop him up that we expect very little work of this caliber from those sources.



Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush attacked lobbyists in a speech in Tallahassee on Monday, but he was initially scheduled to speak to a major state lobbying group. Above, Bush speaks to a crowd of supporters in Pella, Iowa, June 17, 2015. Getty Images/Steve Pope

In his speech in Tallahassee, Florida, on Monday denouncing the influence of lobbyists, Jeb Bush neglected to mention one critical detail: The event was organized by a powerful corporate lobbying group that has helped financially support his White House bid.

Speaking at Florida State University, the former Florida governor derided what he called the capital city’s “comfortable establishment” that leverages lobbying power to unduly shape public policy. “I was a governor who refused to go along with that establishment,” Bush said.

Bush was touting his clean-government credentials at a function organized by the Florida Chamber of Commerce, a private lobbying group for the state’s business community. Emails obtained by International Business Times show that Bush’s campaign coordinated the event with the chamber, whose political committee has donated to a super PAC backing Bush's bid for president.

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A representative of the Bush campaign told IBTimes that "the Florida chamber did not host the event."

But two Florida State University officials separately told IBTimes that the chamber arranged the event at the public university. The school provided emails exchanged with chamber officials that appear to confirm that the chamber organized the event on behalf of Bush’s campaign, and coordinated with the campaign on the event.

“This will be a Florida Chamber event,” wrote Florida Chamber of Commerce economic development aide Carolyn Johnson to FSU officials. “However, Jeb Bush’s team has requested to pay the invoice and be the name on the contract. This is to avoid any legal gray areas.”

The chamber emails show officials at the business lobbying group coordinating with a Bush campaign aide on Bush’s government ethics event at FSU.

“I have copied(Bush campaign aide) Jamie Carroll who will be the point person on their end and I will continue to be the point person for the Florida Chamber and be present at any walkthroughs and throughout the event, and we will have our staff helping work the event,” Johnson wrote.

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Also mentioned in the article is that Bush did not talk about his close relationship with Southern Strategy Group (how Nixonian), or about his history as a registered lobbyist in 1991 for his Miami real estate business with Armando Codina.

A representative of Bush’s campaign told the Wall Street Journal that though Bush was indeed a registered lobbyist, he “was not working as a lobbyist” and instead was a partner on the underlying real estate project.

The Southern Strategy Group currently lobbies for the Florida Chamber of Commerce. It also bankrolled the Florida Republican Party while Bush was governor and its lobbyists are now among Bush’s top presidential campaign donors.

Remember, it's more than OK if you are a Bush.


'Rules are for thee and not for me.'