JEB BUSH WON’T RUN FOR U.S. SENATE IN 2010
Posted by klaing on January 6, 2009
By KEITH LAING, THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA
THE CAPITAL, TALLAHASSEE, Jan. 6, 2009………The first domino in the highly anticipated 2010 election for the U.S. Senate in Florida fell Tuesday when former Gov. Jeb Bush announced that he will be sitting out the race.
The former governor – and brother of the outgoing U.S. President – had been touted by many as a possible Republican candidate for the Senate seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Mel Martinez.
But Bush said Tuesday that he was passing on the opportunity to follow his brother’s and father’s footsteps to Washington, D.C. Both presidents Bush have publicly encouraged the Florida Bush to run, with the family elder saying during an appearance on on the cable television program Fox News Sunday that he hoped his son would run for the Senate in 2010 and eventually pursue the White House.
Bush had been considering the Senate possibility at least, surprising some observers by saying in November that he would think about the race after Martinez dropped out, but Tuesday he said his consideration had come to end.
“While the opportunity to serve my state and country during these turbulent and dynamic times is compelling, now is not the right time to return to elected office,” Bush said in a statement. However, Bush said he would still like to play a role in the resurrection of the Republican Party, which is smarting nationally and locally after big losses in 2008.
“In the coming months and years, I hope to play a constructive role in the future of the Republican Party, advocating ideas and policies that solve the pressing problems of our day,” he said. “We must rebuild the party by focusing on the common purposes and core conservative principles that unite us all – limited government, a strong national defense and safe homeland and the protection of liberty tempered by personal responsibility.”
The popular two-term governor had been assumed by many to be the front-runner for the Senate seat, including Republican Party consultant Matt Williams. Several other possible candidates whose names were bandied about following Martinez’ surprise November announcement said they would not run if Bush did.
“Obviously Gov. Bush’s decision changes the circumstances somewhat,” Williams, who managed a previous Senate campaign for Attorney General Bill McCollum, said. “Bush would have been the odds-on favorite to be the nominee.”
However, Williams said he was not necessarily surprised that Bush ultimately decided to pass on the race.
“I could have seen him going either way,” he said. “It’s a big job and a big time commitment.”
University of South Florida political science professor Susan MacManus also said she was not surprised by Bush’s decision to forgo the 2010 race.
“When stories start to be leaked about indecision, you can usually tell what the decision is going to be,” MacManus said.
She also agreed that Bush sitting out the race fundamentally alters the Republican race, which now does not have an obvious frontrunner.
“Clearly there’s going to be a huge fight for the Republican nomination,” MacManus said. “The party nationally and locally is having a lot of leadership battles. There’s not a lot of cohesion. I think you’ll have a lot of different types of Republicans in the race.”
MacManus added that Bush, who remains popular in Florida two years after leaving office, likely decided that his brother’s national unpopularity would have made the Senate road a tough one in 2010. Still, she said, Bush would likely pursue elected office again, despite taking a pass on the Senate race.
“Two years is not a lot of time to repair the Bush name, even though he would have had an easier time of doing that in Florida than nationally,” she said. “I think he wanted to put more time between his brother’s administration and the his next run for office. Timing is everything in politics.”
Democrats already have been anxiously eying the race, buoyed by President-elect Barack Obama’s win in the state this year, but with Bush now out of the race, the Republican floodgates will likely open too. Attorney General McCollum and former state House Speaker Allan Bense both publicly said they were considering the race and several other Republicans have been mentioned as worth watching. Among them are state Senate President Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, and former state House Speaker Marco Rubio, who recently launched a campaign website, but did not specify what he was campaigning for.
U.S. Reps. Adam Putnam of Bartow, Ginny Brown-Waite of Brooksville, Connie Mack of Fort Myers, and Miami Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen have also been mentioned as possible contenders, as has Miami Mayor Manny Diaz.
MacManus said that she expects the flood of possible candidates leaking their possible interest in the seat to continue as they seek to check the interest of the state’s fundraising community in their bids.
“The first step is the leak and the second step is the fundraising,” she said. “You have a lot of candidates throwing their names out there and seeing if they can raise the kind of money that an open seat race would require.”
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1/6/2009
