June 15, 2015

Jeb Bush Is Officially Running for President. Here’s What You Need to Know About Him.

Manatees and a weird Nigerian deal—learn more about the latest GOPer to announce.

Phelan M. Ebenhack/AP

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Well, today’s the day. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is expected to finally announce that he is running for president. After months of mounting a not-very-shadow campaign and raising money (almost $100 million since January for his super-PAC Right to Rise), his official leap into the crowded Republican field is no surprise. As the third Bush to run for president in 35 years, he is already considered the top choice for the GOP establishment.

But the GOP establishment no longer rules the party as it once did, so the road to the nomination, much less to the White House, is filled with land mines for Bush. Tea partiers and the Christian right are powerful Bush antagonists. Before he made his candidacy official, a tea party-aligned group called Constitutional Rights PAC started promoting the website EndJeb2016.com, which accuses Bush of being “anything but a ‘conservative.'”

And there is the baggage that comes with being a Bush. His campaign hardly presents the forward-looking image that some of the other Republican candidates claim they can offer. “If Republicans are going to win the election in the fall of 2016, we need a new fresh face, big bold ideas from outside of Washington, and someone who’s got the proven track record,” GOP presidential candidate Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker told the Tampa Bay Times.

After decades as a public figure, Bush has earned much media attention. Here’s a roundup of Mother Jones’ recent coverage, some of which examines scandals and controversies of decades past:

Read more here: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2015/03/31/3718085/dynastic-drag-hurts-jeb-bush-more.html#storylink=cp

 

 

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THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

But you told us fundraising is annoying—with the gimmicks, overwrought tone, manipulative language, and sheer volume of urgent URGENT URGENT!!! content we’re all bombarded with. It sure can be.

So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

The upshot? Mother Jones does journalism you don’t find elsewhere: in-depth, time-intensive, ahead-of-the-curve reporting on underreported beats. We operate on razor-thin margins in an unfathomably hard news business, and can’t afford to come up short on these online goals. And given everything, reporting like ours is vital right now.

If you can afford to part with a few bucks, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones with a much-needed year-end donation. And please do it now, while you’re thinking about it—with fewer people paying attention to the news like you are, we need everyone with us to get there.

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