Jeb Bush focused on growing personal wealth, not 2016

CORAL GABLES, Fla. - While other Republicans considering the 2016 presidential race are openly laying the foundations of potential campaigns, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is busy tending to a growing personal business empire.

It's a break in style from recent candidates who distanced themselves from the sometimes politically risky business of making money before running.

A Republican establishment favorite, Bush is chairman of a Florida-based private equity and business advisory group, and is a managing partner of at least eight other separate companies that dabble in ventures ranging from privatized emergency response to real estate to driverless cars, according to state and federal records.

In the past three years, regulatory filings show that he and his partners at the private equity firm, Britton Hill Holdings, have branched out into nearly a dozen different investment entities and raised at least $66.4 million from domestic and foreign investors. That includes several million this past April from a group that included a privately owned Chinese conglomerate, a deal first reported by Bloomberg.

Bush says he will make a decision about 2016 by year's end. Should he run, this son and brother of the past two Republican presidents will face pressure to disclose years of personal tax returns and details about his private business activity, as well as to unwind his ownership in the business network he began building after leaving office in 2007.

For now, in much the same way he is quietly working to support GOP candidates in the November elections, Bush's business deals are made out of the spotlight. There is no suggestion any are improper. Because they are private enterprises and disclosure laws require only basic information, public documents offer few details about their exact nature.

They are, however, reminiscent of the GOP's last presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, who struggled at times to explain the often complicated and sometimes controversial ways he made a living. Romney, as well as Bush's father and brother, wound down personal business affairs years before running for president.

"It is a legitimate issue to think about," said Ron Kaufman, a former Romney adviser who is close to the Bush family. "In a perfect world, would he be better served if (the presidential race) was four years away? Sure. But it's not."

Bush, who declined a request for an interview, "is not currently a candidate for office. He's a businessman," said his spokeswoman, Kristy Campbell. "If he makes a decision to run for president, he would certainly review his work engagements at that time."

Other Bush confidants caution against reading too much into his business dealings, arguing that he's well positioned to wait longer than other candidates to make a call on a campaign because of his political connections and deep fundraising network.

"You don't put your life on hold or call a time out. You move on until you make a decision," said Al Cardenas, a Bush friend and adviser. "He enjoys what he's doing. Investors trust him. So why would you put a stop to that?"

Operatives in both parties said the calculus isn't that simple.

In 2012, Romney was attacked by other Republicans as a "vulture capitalist," which helped create the portrait of job-destroying buyout chief who enjoyed a lower tax rate than most people in the United States.

"It is a target-rich environment for opposition research teams to pour through and begin to build a narrative that you're out of touch," said South Carolina-based Republican operative Hogan Gidley. "It sounds like he's doing everything right, everything above board. But the political reality exists that it still might hurt him."

Cardenas rejects the comparison to Romney, whose Bain Capital held a majority stake in dozens of companies and directly oversaw management decisions. Bush, unlike Romney, will not be defined by his "fairly modest" investments, Cardenas said, adding that comparing the two is "the difference between running a gas station and running Texaco."

Friends and former aides say Bush's behavior is consistent with the way he handled his business affairs while contemplating runs for governor in 1994 and 1998.

"Before he was a candidate, he was a businessman, and he conducted his business sort of not thinking about his next (political) move. He just did it," said Phil Handy, a Florida businessman who was chairman of Bush's gubernatorial campaigns. "I think it reflects his ambivalence about running for office, but I don't think it's at all unusual."

Still, Bush's approach is inarguably against the norm. His father, former President George H. W. Bush, turned his financial affairs over to a blind trust once he became vice president. Jeb Bush's brother, former President George W. Bush, sold stocks with connections to Mideast oil companies roughly a decade before running. He later put the majority of his assets into treasury notes and a blind trust.

Jeb Bush's business obligations sometimes have conflicted with the political calendar: When some possible contenders, including New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington this year, Bush declined to appear because of undisclosed business commitments.

But Bush has traveled the country this year raising money for Republicans and continues to work on education issues at his foundation. He has headlined more than two dozen private fundraisers, including events to help the governors of Iowa, South Carolina and Nevada, three of the first four states to hold presidential primaries.

Bush's associates aren't actively contacting potential supporters, the Journal reports, but they are answering inquiries from fundraisers and strategists who have been courted by other candidates, urging them to keep their powder dry until the former governor decides on his next step.

"He's quietly active. He just doesn't go out and bang the drum," said Mel Sembler, a Florida real estate developer and top Republican fundraiser. "He's doing all the right things, and I think he's going to be a serious contender."

Sally Bradshaw, one of Bush's top advisers, has said he'll make a decision on whether to mount a bid "sometime after November."

Bush is a favorite of the GOP's establishment wing, but tea party conservatives and activists have greeted the talk of him running with skepticism. His embrace of comprehensive immigration reform and common core national education standards put him at odds with much of the GOP base.

Though Bush began 2014 atop Republicans' list of which candidates they'd like to see enter the race, more recent poll numbers show him trailing other potential contenders like New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Texas Gov. Rick Perry.