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| '''John Ellis Bush''' (born ], ]), commonly known as "Jeb Bush", is the 43rd and current ] of ]. | |||
| ==Early years== | |||
| Jeb Bush was born in ] where his father was running an oil drilling company. He has been known by his initials JEB, since childhood. When he was six years old, the family moved to ], Texas. He was a childhood athlete enjoying ] and ]. He went to a public elementary school, but later transferred to a private school. When he was in eighth grade, his father won a seat in Congress and moved to ]. Jeb stayed in Houston with another family and finished the school year there. | |||
| ==High school and college years== | |||
| He then enrolled in Andover, an elite private high school in Massachusetts. He described his time there as "a cynical little turd in a cynical little school". He admitted to squealing tires and smoking marijuana, while a student there. When he was seventeen, he went to ], ], as part of a student exchange program. While attending a motorcycle race, he met a local girl named ]. They married three years later. Jeb Bush now speaks ] and ] fluently. | |||
| He attended the ] and graduated ] with a bachelor's degree in Latin American Affairs in 1973, taking only two and a half years. He registered for the ], but the ] ended before his number came up. | |||
| ==Marries, works as a banker== | |||
| After graduating, he married Columba Garnica Gallo in ]. They now have three children, ], Noelle and John E. "Jeb", Jr. He then went to work for Texas Commerce Bank, which was partly owned by his father's friend and the future ], ]. His starting salary was about $8,000 a year. In November 1977, he was sent to to ] to open a bank branch. He spent about two years there, working in international finance. He returned to the United States to work on his father's campaign for the Republican presidential nomination in 1980. His father ultimately lost, but was nominated and elected as the vice-president. | |||
| ==Enters Miami real estate== | |||
| Following the election, Jeb Bush and his family moved to ], Florida outside of ]. He took a job in real estate with ], then a 32 year old ]n immigrant. Codina had made millions in a computer business and just formed IntrAmerica Investments Inc. to pursue opportunities in real estate. Codina paid Bush $41,508 in 1981. However, Bush soon became a valuable salesman for Codina and made a lot of money on commissions. His name and connections to his father, the vice-president, opened doors to important clients. | |||
| In his years in Miami, he was involved in a number of business dealings including a mobile phone company, he served on the board of a Norwegian-owned company that sold fire equipment to the ], he was a minority owner of the ], he bought a shoe company that sold footwear in Panama, and a scheme to sell water pumps in Nigeria. | |||
| ==Enters Florida politics== | |||
| He got his start in Florida politics as the Chairman of the Dade County Republican Party. Dade County played an important role in the 1986 election of ] to the Governor's office. In return, Martinez appointed Bush as Florida's Secretary of Commerce. He served in that role in 1987 and 1988, before resigning once again to work on his father's presidential campaign. | |||
| After his father was elected President, Bush's real estate development company took off. He and Cordina changed the name to Cordina-Bush and it became one of South Florida's leading real estate development firms. Bush got 40% of the profits of the firm. But in June 1993, Jeb sold his share of the company Codina for over one million dollars. He sold it to run for office. | |||
| ==Runs for Florida governor== | |||
| He launched an unsuccessful bid for the Governor's Office in 1994 against incumbent ] Governor ]. In 1998, he defeated Democratic opponent ] (55% to 45%) to become Governor, after courting moderate voters and ]s. Simultaneously, his brother George W. Bush won a landslide reelection victory for a second term as ], and the Bush brothers became the first siblings to govern two states at the same time since ] and ] governed ] and ] from ] to ]. | |||
| Jeb Bush was re-elected in November ], becoming the first ] in the state's history to be re-elected as Governor. | |||
| He defeated Democrat ] by a slightly greater margin than in 1998 (56% to 44%). He was active in the ] whose goal is to promote American global leadership. | |||
| ==Bush family== | |||
| He is the younger brother of President ], older brother of ], and second son of former President ]. The ] has been heavily involved with high level politics. This has been likened to ]ic conditions, which has created the ] and the prediction of the ]. | |||
| ==Political future== | |||
| Jeb Bush is widely considered to be a rising star of the Republican Party; there was some speculation that he might run for President himself in 2008. However, on ], 2004 he officially in the 2008 election. He is seen as extremely popular among ]ns in Florida (winning 80% of the Cuban vote in 2002), and moderately popular among non-Cuban ] (56% in 2002, equaling the 56% he won statewide). | |||
| == Controversy == | |||
| Jeb Bush's business dealings have attracted controversy. An ] report in the '']'' details Bush's involvement in a questionable ]n deal, where money was allegedly used to bribe government officials for approval of a $74 million water pump sale that was mostly finance by US foreign aid. | |||
| There have also been claims of political hypocrisy. Jeb Bush's daughter ] was sent into rehabilitation for her ] 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). | |||
| == References == | |||
| {{wikiquote}} | |||
| *Jeb Bush: The Son Rises Away from Dad's Shadow, by Sydney P. Freedberg, ''The Miami Herald'', August 15, 1994. | |||
| * . By ] and ], '']'', Oct 5 2002. Describes the Nigeria deal and other business activities by Jeb Bush. | |||
| * . Salon.com article by ] about inaccurate voter "purge" lists. (Requires subscription.) | |||
| *. Article on so-called "price gouging" following ], from the ], ] ] | |||
| * . ] editorial by ]. "Gov. Jeb Bush calls for jail time for nonviolent drug offenders as his daughter gets sent to rehab." | |||
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Revision as of 04:15, 4 November 2004
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