Jeb Bush Campaign Rocked by Money Woes, Loss of Three Fundraisers

Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 06:11 pm

Already on a rocks from a variety of self-inflicted wounds, the Bush campaign has cut staffer pay and now lost three skilled fundraisers.

John Ellis “Jeb” Bush’s campaign was already in trouble going into this weekend, simply because voters aren’t fooled by his Jeb! persona, minus the Bush. We all know who he is, even Republicans. Keep in mind, this was the GOP’s presumptive frontrunner going into the 2016 campaign cycle.

As of August 25, The New York Times editorial board was calling him a “forlorn candidate,” and by Friday, August 28, Bush was telling a crowd that Trump “is a guy that’s the front-runner, he should be treated like the front-runner.”

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Bad as they were, things just got worse, with Politico reporting Saturday that “Three top Jeb Bush fundraisers abruptly parted ways with his presidential campaign on Friday, amid internal personality conflicts and questions about the strength of his candidacy.”

Donald Trump was quick to notice, and crow:

According to Politico,

There are different versions of what transpired. The Florida-based fundraising consultants — Kris Money, Trey McCarley, and Debbie Aleksander — have said that they voluntarily quit the campaign and were still working with Bush’s super PAC, Right to Rise Super PAC. Others said the three, who worked under the same contract, were let go because they were no longer needed for the current phase of the campaign.

Fox News is reporting, as told to them by Bush sources, that “Money, McCarley and Alexander will continue to work for Right to Rise.”

Whatever the truth of the details, the three are no longer with the campaign. And Jeb Bush is in trouble already. It’s no surprise, as he has really done nothing right since he decided to run. And despite the success of his Super PAC, which, according to federal records has raised $114 million in the first quarter of 2015, his campaign has, as Politico put it, had more staffers than money.

The New York Times reported on August 24 that Bush had instituted “cost-saving measures” and that some aids have had their pay cut. If his campaign has not exactly fallen apart like Rick Perry’s, these are not encouraging signs.

Jeb Bush has been an exercise in incompetence, despite the campaign’s claim, by way of Bush spokesman Tim Miller to Fox News that “Governor Bush has the widest and deepest fundraising operation of any candidate in the field.”

And Ana Navarro, who was Bush’s director of immigration policy, but now works as a “Republican strategist and CNN political analyst,” told CNN, “They’ve done a good job. That they’re still working for the super PAC tells us it’s not a Jeb issue.”

Jeb Bush clearly has his apologists. But the Bush pockets might be no deeper than the Bush intellect, and if the skill of his campaign is on a par with whatever decision-making process determined the “anchor babies” strategy, Jeb! might as well drop out now.

Trump with his fourth grade rhetoric does not come across as exactly brilliant, but Jeb is the one who, as the Times pointed out, managed to get himself lectured on “ethnic sensitivity by Donald Trump” of all people.

Hrafnkell Haraldsson

Hrafnkell Haraldsson, a social liberal with leanings toward centrist politics has degrees in history and philosophy. His interests include, besides history and philosophy, human rights issues, freedom of choice, religion, and the precarious dichotomy of freedom of speech and intolerance. He brings a slightly different perspective to his writing, being that he is neither a follower of an Abrahamic faith nor an atheist but a polytheist, a modern-day Heathen who follows the customs and traditions of his Norse ancestors. He maintains his own blog, A Heathen’s Day, which deals with Heathen and Pagan matters, and Mos Maiorum Foundation www.mosmaiorum.org, dedicated to ethnic religion. He has also contributed to NewsJunkiePost, GodsOwnParty and Pagan+Politics.