Jeb Bush
John Ellis "Jeb" Bush (born February 11, 1953) is the 43rd and current Governor of Florida. He was elected in November 1998 and re-elected in November 2002, becoming the first Republican in the state's history to be re-elected as Governor. He is the younger brother of President George W. Bush, older brother of Neil Bush, and second son of former President George H. W. Bush.
Bush was born in Midland, Texas. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a bachelor's degree in Latin American Affairs from the University of Texas at Austin in 1973. He got his start in Florida by helping to start a real estate development company in 1980. From 1987 to 1988, he served as Florida's Secretary of Commerce. He launched an unsuccessful bid for the Governor's Office in 1994 against incumbent Democratic Governor Lawton Chiles. In 1998, he handily defeated Democratic opponent Buddy MacKay to become Governor, after courting moderate voters and Hispanics. Simultaneously, his brother George W. Bush won a landslide victory to become Governor of Texas, and the Bush brothers became the first siblings to govern two states at the same time since Nelson and Winthrop Rockefeller governed New York and Arkansas in the 1970s.
Bush won re-election in 2002 against Democrat Bill McBride by an even larger margin than in 1998.
He has been married to Columba Garnica Gallo since 1974 and has three children, George P., Noelle and Jeb Jr. Jeb Bush speaks Spanish and English.
Journalist Greg Palast has alleged that some African-American voters were deliberately prevented from voting in the 2002 election through the use of inaccurate voter "purge" lists of felons and deceased people. An October 2002 report in the Miami Herald details Bush's involvement in a questionable Nigerian deal, where money was allegedly used to bribe government officials for approval of a $74 million water pump sale.
There have also been claims of political hypocrisy because Bush's daughter Noelle Bush was sent into rehabilitation for her drug use, while Jeb Bush simultaneously called for harsh punishment of nonviolent drug offenders (and actively opposed a ballot initiative that would send them into treatment instead).
The fact that the Bush family -- President George H. W. Bush, President George W. Bush, Governor Jeb Bush -- has been so heavily involved with high level politics has been likened to aristocratic conditions, which has created the George Bush family conspiracy theory and the prediction of the Bush dynasty.
Controversy
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