Former President George W. Bush, in an ABC News interview, says his younger brother Jeb Bush would be a “marvelous” candidate if the former Florida governor decides to run for president in 2016.

“He would be a marvelous candidate if he chooses to do so. He doesn’t need my counsel because he knows what it is, which is ‘Run!’ ” Bush told Diane Sawyer. “But whether he does or not, it’s a very personal decision.”

The former president said the possibility of a Jeb Bush-Hillary Clinton contest in 2016 will make for “a fantastic photo here” at today’s opening of the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum on the campus of Southern Methodist University near Dallas. Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton are expected to be on hand, along with former presidents Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton and President Barack Obama.

Florida voters favor Democrat Hillary Clinton as a 2016 presidential candidate over Sunshine State Republicans Jeb Bush or Marco Rubio, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll released this morning.

By a 51-to-44 percent margin, Floridians say they support “stricter gun control laws,” with 91 percent favoring background checks for all gun buyers, 56 percent favoring an ban on “assault weapons” and 53 percent favoring a ban on magazines that hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition.

When asked “Who do you think better reflects your views on guns, President Obama or the National Rifle Association?” 45 percent chose the NRA and 44 percent chose Obama — a virtual tie considering the poll’s 3.1 percent margin of error.

By a 57-to-33 percent margin, Florida voters said gun ownership “does more to protect people from becoming victims of crime” rather than “put people’s safety at risk.” By a 60-to-31 percent margin, respondents said allowing the ownership of assault weapons makes the country more dangerous.

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OXON HILL, Md. — Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush challenged the Republican Party to be more inclusive during a Friday night speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference just outside Washington.

“The face of the Republican Party needs to be the face of every American, and we need to be the party of inclusion and acceptance. It’s our heritage and it’s our future, and we need to couch our efforts in those terms,” Bush said in a speech that also included some his characteristic policy wonkery and broad optimism about America’s potential.

Read the full story here.

CPAC has long been a showcase for potential Republican presidential candidates, and Bush has not shut the door on a 2016 run. Some Bush fans wore “Jeb! ’16″ stickers, including Rebecca McLaughlin of Orlando, a University of Central Florida student who shed tears of excitement and joy when she met Bush at a book signing before his speech.

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie — potential 2016 GOP presidential rivals — will be in Palm Beach next week for separate fundraisers before heading to Coral Gables for a weekend with top Republican National Committee donors.

Christie, who’s up for re-election this year in the Garden State, will attend a $3,800-a-head cocktail reception on March 7 at the home of Jana and John Scarpa.

Rubio is slated to raise money the following night for his Rubio Victory Committee with a $1,000 cocktail reception at the home of Jim and Dot Patterson and a $10,000-a-person dinner at the home of Pepe Fanjul, according to the esteemed Michele Dargan in The Palm Beach Daily News.

On March 9 and 10, Rubio and Christie will be at The Biltmore in Coral Gables for an RNC event that also features former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and Texas Sen. and tea party superstar Ted Cruz.

Former Gov. Jeb Bush returned Thursday to the Florida Capitol for one of his few visits since his two terms as chief executive ended six years ago.

Bush, who now leads foundations that advance education policies similar to those he signed into law as governor, met behind closed doors with House and Senate members, frequently posing for pictures with lawmakers. Many had entered the Legislature since Bush left office.

Bush, however, insisted he came to Tallahassee without specific proposals to push.

“We provide assistance to people who want to advocate education reform policies, the Legislature is about ready to start,” Bush said outside Senate President Don Gaetz’s office. “I’m here to say hello to some friends and advance the cause of rising student achievement.”

Bush said he conveyed identical messages to lawmakers he encountered.

“Be big. Be bold. Fill the space,” Bush said.

Although Bush’s stop at the Capitol was his first since 2010, he still has plenty of allies. Fellow Republican, Gov. Rick Scott, is promoting changes to expand enrollment in charter schools.

House Speaker Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, has pushing for expanding online education in Florida, a concept now being studied by state university officials. He also has created a new education Choice and Innovation Subcommittee charged with exploring more charter-, virtual- and home-school options.

Legislation introduced this week in the Senate also would let parents in low-performing schools call for a private-management company to take over. A similar “parent trigger” bill died on a 20-20 vote last year in the Senate. But Bush said his Foundation for Excellence in Education, which advocates nationwide, is a strong proponent of the approach.

“It’s a pretty simple law. It says that if you’re in a failing school, parents ought to have the ability, if a majority want to, to have a say — simply a say — in providing advice on what structure a failing school should take,” Bush said. “That doesn’t say…they can convert to a charter school or something else. It just simply says, parents’ voice matters. If that’s a radical idea in America today, then we’re in a heap of trouble.”

“I think it’ll pass,” Bush said.

Florida Education Commissioner Tony Bennett, who adheres to Bush’s parental choice concepts, has been a frequent speaker at the former governor’s foundation meetings. Bennett is Florida’s third education commissioner in two years.

Gaetz, however, said that in their meeting, he and Bush didn’t speak about the parent trigger idea.

“We talked generally about where education policy was going in this country, we talked about online education,” Gaetz said.

Gaetz acknowledged that the pair shared concerns about deadlines that are nearing for many state and national education efforts. Among them, is the movement in Florida away from FCAT testing toward standards based on a common core curriculum, and the linking of teacher salaries to student performance.

“I told him we have a lot of reform that has been sort of shot off like rockets…and it’s all coming down from the sky now in the same place at the same time,” Gaetz said.

Gaetz said that Bush’s response was, “You need leadership. He sort of looked at me like, ‘Gaetz, do your job.’”

Florida Republicans want to get back to basics after losing the presidential race, four congressional seats and super-majorities in both the state House and the state Senate in November.

And, mirroring national Republicans’ post-election introspection, Florida GOP leaders say they need to change their tone to broaden their appeal.

“It’s got to reinvent itself,” said Tom Slade, said of the Republican Party of Florida, which he chaired for three consecutive terms until 2000 and ushered in an era of GOP dominance.
Elected officials, state party staff and consultants repeatedly point back to Republican icon Ronald Reagan even as they look forward to instituting high-tech methods to spread the message of a softer, gentler GOP.

For some — including Republican Party of Florida Chairman Lenny Curry — that means moving away from hot-button social issues such as abortion and refocusing on the principles of lower taxes and smaller government that earned broad support in a state where voters are almost evenly split between the parties.

“The Republican Party I grew up in is the party of Reagan. That was, ‘it’s morning in America, the shining city on the hill.’ It’s about optimism and it’s about hope. And for whatever reason, we have allowed folks that maybe aren’t even our party to poison the well. And somehow we’ve gotten this reputation that we’re ‘the party of ‘no,’ and that’s just not true,” Curry said. “That’s just not the party that I fell in love with.”

Read the rest of the story here.

Remembrances continued through Sunday evening following the death of 2002 Florida Democratic gubernatorial nominee Bill McBride, a longtime managing partner at the law firm, Holland & Knight, and husband of the Democrats’ 2010 nominee for governor, Alex Sink.

“Bill McBride was a great lawyer, a devoted public servant, a veteran and a talented leader,” said Gov. Rick Scott, who narrowly defeated Sink .  “Our family’s thoughts and prayers are with the McBride family, and especially his wife Alex, at this time of great loss.

“Florida is no doubt a better place because people like Bill McBride commit themselves to making a difference in the lives of others,” Scott said.

McBride suffered a heart attack Saturday while visiting with family in Mount Airy, N.C.  McBride had suffered from heart problems for many years but, Sink said, “this was very sudden and unexpected.”

A year after his defeat by Gov. Jeb Bush, McBride collapsed while exercising at a health club near his Tampa office. McBride needed to be resuscitated, but at the time, tests apparently showed the episode was not a heart attack and he suffered no lasting damage.

Bush sent a message from his Twitter account that, “Thoughts and prayers are with Alex and Bill’s entire family.”

Steven Sonberg, managing partner at Holland & Knight, said, “Bill believed strongly that all lawyers have an obligation to help those in need, especially those who cannot afford access to the legal system. His lasting contributions will serve
as a legacy for years to come.”

Florida Democratic Party Chairman Rod Smith also honored McBride for his years of devotion to the party.

“All those who knew Bill knew he was not only a tireless advocate for the Democratic Party, but a leader and true public servant to the people of Florida,” Smith said.

 

DAVIE — President Obama campaigned with the rapper Pitbull on Sunday and has Bruce Springsteen on the trail with him today.

Mitt Romney‘s campaign relied on a different kind of star power here this afternoon.

“On the other side, they may have Pitbull and Bruce Springsteen, but you’re going to get to see some of the rock stars that we have on our ticket today with Jeb Bush and Condoleezza Rice,” Republican congressional hopeful Adam Hasner told a crowd of about 200 at a get-out-the-vote rally at Broward College.

Former Secretary of State Rice scoffed at Democratic talk of a “war on women” while former Gov. Bush called Obama a failed president who has brought division during his term.

(more…)

Municipal pension plans are stretching thinner in Florida as a smaller workforce supports a growing number of retirees — with prospects bleak that funds will recover, a report released Wednesday concludes.

The Leroy Collins Institute’s latest review of the plans found that while the sluggish economy has contributed to the funds’ problems, deeper woes plague them.

“These municipal pension issues were not created overnight and can’t be changed overnight,” said David Matkin, a public administration professor at Florida State University, who studied Florida’s 492 municipal pension plans for the Tallahassee-based institute.

The problems track those facing the Social Security system or Medicare:  Too few workers supporting a growing number of retirees. If anything, municipal budget cuts and layoffs in recent years have contributed to the imbalance, analysts said.

The result: city commissioners must earmark a larger share of municipal budgets for pension benefits. That means citizen services decline, Matkin said.

“They take up a space that is demanded by other services,” Matkin said. “You have to have some budgeting tradeoffs.”

A report released last November by the Leroy Collins Institute gave mixed reviews on the health of pension plans in 100 Florida cities, with one-third drawing ‘D’ or “F” grades for being underfunded. In Palm Beach County, plans in six cities earned failing, or near-failing grades.

Boynton Beach’s police plan and Palm Beach Gardens’ police and fire pensions were among the 15 percent of municipal plans drawing F’s. Various Plans in Riviera Beach, Boca Raton, Jupiter, Boynton Beach and Lake Worth earned D’s in the Collins Institute analysis of financial strength.

But general employee pensions in Boca Raton, Delray Beach and the West Palm Beach police pension also were named as some of the best-funded plans in the state.

Matkin found Florida’s pension slide began in the early 2000s, well before the recession. The timing is close to when Gov. Jeb Bush and the Republican-led Legislature approved changes that improved city police and fire pensions.

 The provision requires that growth in dollars flowing to cities from state taxes on property insurance premiums go to additional benefits for police officers and firefighters.

Cities next responded with such pension sweeteners as cost-of-living adjustments, lower retirement age, or an increased “multiplier” used in determining pensions based on years-of-service, all of which municipal officials say have forced cities to spend hundreds of millions of dollars more on pension costs since 1999.

 The pro-union law was the first measure enacted by Bush and Republican legislators in Florida that year, then the first GOP-controlled government of any state that had been part of the Confederacy. Bush had been endorsed in the 1998 governor’s race by police and fire unions over Democrat Buddy MacKay, largely on the strength of the promised payback.

Bush eagerly signed the measure ­- relishing the symbolism of making good in a hurry on a campaign promise.

Bush and Republican leaders, however, are rarely thought of as being allied with unions. Indeed, Bush last year co-authored an Op-Ed in the Los Angeles Times, decrying the financial woes of states, putting much of the blame on union contracts.

Bush’s co-writer was Newt Gingrich, then a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush will headline a fund-raiser for Republican U.S. Senate candidate Connie Mack next month in Miami, the campaign announced Thursday.

The $500-and-up per-person event will be held the evening of Oct. 5 at Miami’s Grove Isle Club on Biscayne Bay.

Meanwhile, Mack and Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson have agreed to what sponsors are calling the pair’s only live statewide television debate, Oct. 17. Leadership Florida and the Florida Press Association are co-sponsoring the debate, which will be aired from Nova Southeastern University in Davie at 7 p.m.

WPTV-Channel 5 in West Palm Beach is producing the event, which will be carried by other broadcast partners in Florida’s 11 TV markets.

Mack and Nelson are still in discussions with Tampa’s Bay News 9 and CNN about another debate, tentatively planned for Oct. 30. The Nelson campaign wants to advance that date, to bring it closer to when early voting is scheduled to begin on Oct. 27.

A lawsuit challenging whether Gov. Rick Scott and the Florida Legislature are meeting their constitutional duty to finance a high-quality public school system headed back to the trial court Tuesday after the state Supreme Court denied reviewing the case.

The lawsuit was  filed in 2009 in Leon County Circuit Court by Citizens for Strong Schools, a nonprofit organization.

The First District Court of  Appeal had narrowly ruled that the case could go forward in lower court. But Senate President Mike Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, argued that the Supreme Court should review the decision — which justices denied Tuesday.

The case is widely seen as a key challenge to whether Florida schools are appropriately financed, based on a 1998 constitutional amendment approved overwhelmingly by voters and backed by the Florida Education Association, the state’s largest teachers’ union.

Here are the Florida Supreme Court’s filings in the case: http://bit.ly/yKXEwx  

 The amendment demands a uniform system of free public schools by requiring the state make adequate provision for an efficient, safe, secure, and high quality system. The broad language of the amendment became the grounds for justices throwing out former Gov. Jeb Bush’s private school voucher program in 2006.

The high court’s 5-2 ruling said it is unconstitutional to use tax money to send students to private schools.

 

Gov. Rick Scott made it back to Tampa Bay in time to hear U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio and GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney cap off the Republican National Convention Thursday night.

Scott left town earlier this week to attend to Tropical Storm Isaac duties, visiting flood-ravaged Palm Beach County and the Panhandle.

“It’s great,” Scott said of his first GOP convention as he made his way through the mobbed floor of the Tampa Bay Times Forum.

“Marco’s going to give a great talk. Jeb gave a great talk on school choices. It’s a Florida night,” Scott said. “It’s Florida’s day to win the race.”

Clad in his signature dark suit and custom-made cowboy boots, Scott eschewed his VIP governor’s viewing box and instead grabbed a seat on the floor alongside the Florida delegation.

“I want to see,” he said.

after leaving town to attend to Tropical Storm Isaac duties earlier this week.

Gov. Charlie Crist’s plans to speak at next week’s Democratic National Convention brought a fresh round of outrage Monday from Republican leaders — already sizing up the renegade former Republican executive as a likely opponent in the 2014 governor’s race.

“It’s got to be an historic moment,” said Florida Republican Party Chairman Lenny Curry. “A self-proclaimed Jeb Bush, a self-proclaimed Ronald Reagan Republican, who is on the record opposing most of the policies of President Obama is going to speak at the Democratic convention.

“I’m not quite sure what they’re thinking,” he added. “I know what he’s thinking.”

Curry said, “I don’t know what his plans are. It certainly looks like he’s in a position to do something.”

Curry also challenged Crist’s central theme — expressed in an op-ed in the Tampa Bay Times on Sunday — that the Republican Party had moved too far to the right for him, and that’s why he was endorsing President Obama. Curry and Republican researchers have released a trove of Crist quotes and policy positions from his long political career that clearly cast him as a pr0-gun, anti-abortion, anti-same sex marriage Republican.

Instead, Curry said Crist’s latest move follows a pattern that saw him run unsuccessfully as an independent for U.S. Senate when Republican Marco Rubio became the party’s nominee in 2010.

“Charlie left the Republican Party because it was the most likely scenario in which he could win the United States Senate seat,” Curry said. 

The timing of Crist’s announcement — on the eve of the Republican National Convention in his Tampa Bay-area home — infuriates Republicans even more. Asked if the party would run TV spots ridiculing Crist’s conversion, Curry said, “You just gave me an idea.”

“If Charlie Crist wants to…rain on our parade, we’re going to respond,” Curry said.

 

 

 

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said Sunday that the Republican Party must reduce its tough, anti-immigration rhetoric and policies if it hopes to draw Hispanic voters to its ranks.

Mitt Romney’s economic message has some appeal, Bush said. But he was tempered in his assessments of the GOP’s prospects of doing well with Hispanic voters this fall

“I think Gov. Romney can make inroads if he focuses on how can we create a climate of job creation and economic growth,” Bush said on NBC’s Meet the Press. “And that’s what I think this fall’s campaign will be about. I think people will move back toward the Republican side.

“But we’ve got to have a better tone going forward over the long haul, for sure,” Bush said. “You can’t ask people to join your cause and then send a signal that you’re really not wanted. It just doesn’t work.”

About his own White House ambitions, Bush demurred.

“You know, I don’t think about it,” Bush said. “I’m not motivated by it. It takes an incredible amount of discipline and ambition to even think about aspiring to it. And I’m not there yet in my life.”

Bush repeated, however, his earlier view that 2012 would’ve been a good time for him to run.

“It wasn’t the right time for me,” Bush said. “I’m excited about supporting Mitt Romney.”

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi and former Gov. Jeb Bush have been named part of the Republican National Convention lineup for Wednesday’s third night of the event.

The economy — and soon-to-be Republican nominee Mitt Romney’s ability to fix it — will be a central theme of the night. The GOP mantra for Wednesday will be “We Can Change It,” said Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus.

Priebus said the Wednesday night program “will show that the Romney approach is both optimistic and achievable.” 

Bondi and Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens are scheduled to share an early evening stage, shortly after 2008 presidential nominee John McCain addresses the gathering.  Bush will be on a little later, amid vice-presidential runners-up Rob Portman and Tim Pawlenty, who will speak before Romney running mate Paul Ryan takes the stage.

 

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi will have a speaking slot at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, the GOP announced this morning.

Also added today: Texas tea party sensation Ted Cruz, the former solicitor general who just won the state’s GOP Senate primary; recall-surviving Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, whose battles with public employee unions have made him a conservative hero and labor target; Puerto Rico Gov. Luis Fortuno; and Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens.

Said GOP Chairman Reince Preibus: “These five remarkable individuals will bring a diversity of experiences and perspectives to the convention stage in Tampa, where they will voice their support for Governor Mitt Romney. They have each served the public in their own impressive ways, and they all share a dedication to the Republican principles of individual opportunity, responsible government and personal liberty.”

Gov. Rick Scott and former Gov. Jeb Bush are among the speakers the GOP announced Monday and Tuesday.

The latest wave of speaker announcements for the Republican National Convention in Tampa includes former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.

Also on the list announced this morning: former Pennsylvania Sen. and 2012 presidential contestant Rick Santorum, Kentucky Sen. and tea party favorite Rand Paul and Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin. (more…)

With Florida’s top education job open, an advocacy organization is urging Gov. Rick Scott to move in a new direction.

Fund Education Now, founded three years ago by Orlando-area moms opposed to classroom budget cuts, is launching an email campaign aimed at the Republican governor. The group wants Scott to replace outgoing Education Commissioner Gerald Robinson with a new leader committed to reducing Florida’s reliance on high-stakes testing.

Robinson announced Tuesday that he will step down Aug. 31 after a year on the job, to return to his family still living in Virginia.

Fund Education Now also is continuing its fight against legislation defeated last spring dubbed the parent-trigger bill, which would have enabled parents to convert low-performing public schools into charter schools.

“We want a leader that puts the needs of students and their teachers ahead of the high paid lobbyists that represent for-profit charter operators and private voucher programs,” the organization said in its email announcing the campaign.

The organization also chided Robinson for “missteps and blunders” involving the state’s testing system. But former Gov. Jeb Bush on Wednesday was quick to defend Robinson, thanking him for “serving the students and teachers of Florida.”

“He believes all children can learn, and this belief is evident in all he does,” said Bush, chairman of the Foundation for Florida’s Future, a leading advocate of the parent-trigger legislation.
 

Former Gov. Jeb Bush will join some frequently mentioned GOP vice presidential possibilities — Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio, Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty — at a weekend fundraising shindig in Utah with Mitt Romney that’s being cast by some as a VP audition.

Sen. Marco Rubio, whose vetting or non-vetting for VP has been a source of drama this week, is not going. But, after reports surfaced that Rubio wasn’t asked, he told reporters he was invited but declined so he could spend time with his family.

Another notable attendee at the event: Rep. Connie Mack, the Republican Senate candidate and early Romney endorser who was a key surrogate for Romney before Florida’s Jan. 31 primary. Mack, expected to get the GOP nomination to challenge Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson in the fall, is the only Senate candidate expected.

Also expected, according to this and other published reports: Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and South Dakota Sen. John Thune.

Mitt Romney speaks Thursday and President Obama on Friday to the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials annual conference in Lake Buena Vista.

Also slated to address the conference: former Gov. Jeb Bush on Thursday, Sen. Marco Rubio and Gov. Rick Scott on Friday and Sen. Bill Nelson on Saturday.

While the conference, billed as “The Latino Political Convention,” has been in the works for months, it coincides with Obama’s recent order to halt deportations of more than 800,000 young illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. before they were 16, have lived here at least five years without a criminal record and earned a high school diploma or served in the military.

Obama is also stepping up his appeal to Hispanic voters this week with the release of a Spanish-language ad in Florida, Nevada and Colorado with ads touting the federal health care bill featuring Cristina Saralegui, host of The Cristina Show on Univision.