Jeb Bush Returns to Fray and Finds Going Rough

New York Times

By Jonathan Martin

September 24, 2014

Jeb Bush Returns to Fray and Finds Going Rough

GREENSBORO, N.C. — In one of his first public appearances of the 2014 campaign, former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida had a vivid preview Wednesday of the challenges he would face with his party’s conservative base should he seek the Republican nomination for president in 2016.

Standing alongside Thom Tillis, the North Carolina House speaker and Republican Senate candidate, Mr. Bush outlined his views on two of the issues he cares most passionately about: immigration policy and education standards. But as Mr. Bush made the case for an immigration overhaul and the Common Core standards, Mr. Tillis gently put distance between himself and his guest of honor, who had flown here from Florida on a dreary day to offer his endorsement in a race that could decide which party controls the Senate.

“You have to make it clear that amnesty shouldn’t be on the table,” Mr. Tillis said, referring to how to address those immigrants currently in the country illegally. “That doesn’t negate any opportunity to provide some with legal status and other things, but you only do that after you seal the borders and you make the problem no longer grow.”

Mr. Bush supports a pathway to citizenship for unauthorized immigrants and complained that not addressing the immigration system had “done us harm economically.” Speaking to a group of business owners in a lighting company’s warehouse, he said, “Fixing a system that doesn’t work is a big thing that I think will restore and sustain economic growth for this country.”

“If it was framed in that way, I don’t think there’s a big debate in the Republican Party about the need to do this,” he said. “And my hope is with a Republican-controlled Senate, we can begin to see a conversation about how to go about doing that.”

But an easy resolution is not likely in his party. After a reporter noted that Mr. Bush’s immigration stance was more “conciliatory,” the former governor chuckled and the Republicans in the audience let out a brief, nervous laugh.

On the Common Core, the educational standards first devised by a bipartisan group of governors, which have become deeply unpopular among conservative activists, Mr. Tillis also sounded far more conservative than Mr. Bush. The North Carolina House approved the standards in 2011, but, facing primary challengers from the right earlier this year, Mr. Tillis backed away from them.

“I’m not willing to settle just for a national standard if we think we can find things to set a new standard and a best practice,” Mr. Tillis said, pivoting to an attack on the federal Education Department as “a bureaucracy of 5,000 people in Washington” who make an average salary of a little more than $100,000.

While criticizing the Education Department is common among Republicans, Mr. Tillis was standing next to the younger brother of President George W. Bush, whose signature accomplishments include No Child Left Behind, the sweeping federal education law run by the department.

Mr. Bush sensed the need to play down any differences and returned to the microphone. “We can argue about what to call these things,” he said, but maintained that the focus ought to be on ensuring high standards.

The two issues, though, illustrate the rightward drift of the Republican Party since President Bush left the White House, and the pressure current candidates feel to respond to the more conservative party base.

For Jeb Bush, who has not been in office since 2007, all the rhetorical footwork showed what he would have to contend with should he seek the Republican nomination.

Mr. Bush deflected a question on his intentions during the event, but in a brief conversation as he headed for his car, he suggested that taking on his own party’s rank-and-file was not among his considerations. “It’s not a political process, so it won’t take that long once I start,” he said of his decision making.

Asked if his concerns were family-related, he said, “Yeah.”

Mr. Bush’s wife, Columba, showed little appetite for the political sphere when he served two terms as Florida’s governor. But many Republicans believe the more pressing concern for Mr. Bush is how a presidential campaign would affect his daughter, Noelle, who has struggled with substance abuse in the past.

For now, Mr. Bush, who until now has mostly appeared at fund-raisers closed to the press, said he was going to focus on electing Republican governors and members of Congress.

“I’ve done this every election cycle, when I was governor and post my governorship,” he said of his campaign schedule. “I guess because of the speculation, no one really cared back then, and now it’s a bigger deal.”

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