JEB! Bush, Family Ties and a Museum That Never Materialized

(New York Times) - When Jeb Bush set out to build a political base of his own in South Florida three decades ago, he did not lack for new friends. He was a magnet for a long line of Republicans eager to be associated with him and his powerful family, including a Cuban immigrant and former corrections officer named Tony Campos.

Mr. Campos ended up working as an advance man for Mr. Bush’s father, George, when he ran for president in 1988 and on the inauguration after he won. Jeb Bush was impressed enough that he recommended Mr. Campos for a job in the new administration, describing him as someone who “has been a loyal, hard-working supporter of George Bush and has the skills to serve.” And for years afterward, he continued to cultivate a friendship with the Bush family, especially its matriarch, Dorothy Walker Bush, who spent winters in Florida.

But Mr. Campos’s interests in the family were not entirely innocent. Ultimately he would try to exploit those relationships, entangling Jeb Bush, by then the governor of Florida, in a case of misplaced trust and the theft of public funds. Mr. Bush was never connected to any wrongdoing, though now, as he seeks to become the third Bush to occupy the White House, his involvement in the little-known episode is a cautionary tale about the downside of the vast network of friends and supporters that has been an essential part of the family’s decades of political success. Read more.