Jeb Bush’s Deep Love Affair with Lobbyists and Cronyism While Governor of Florida Exposed

Jeb Bush had just completed his successful campaign for re-election and now confronted a second term as governor of Florida. Seeking to shape his immediate agenda, he solicited advice from one of his most trusted advisors: David Rancourt, his former deputy chief of staff, who had since become a corporate lobbyist at one of the most powerful firms in the state, the Southern Strategy Group.

“If you were governor, what would you be focusing on for the next two or three years,” Bush wrote Rancourt in an email dated Aug. 13, 2003. “What initiatives do you think we should pursue? How do you think we should do it?”

Makes you wonder, who is actually governor here?

Two days after sending that note, Bush effectively delivered on one of Southern Strategy Group’s key aims: He signed legislation limiting the dollar value of damages that hospitals and insurance companies could be forced to pay to resolve instances of medical malpractice. The Florida Supreme Court would eventually overturn the bill, arguing that it effectively punished victims of mistreatment in hospitals. But at least for the moment, the governor’s signature handed a victory to Rancourt’s firm, which represented a major association of hospitals. It added to the cachet of the Southern Strategy Group, whose leadership was drawn heavily from the ranks of former Bush staff members and trusted associates.

When Jeb Bush formally announced his campaign for the White House last week, his speech included a prominent denunciation of lobbyists and the fashion in which they enable well-connected insiders to pull the levers of power at the expense of the public. He vowed to avoid “the culture that has made lobbying the premier growth industry in the nation’s capital,” a mode he claimed to have fought relentlessly in Florida. “I was a governor who refused to accept that as the normal or right way of conducting the people’s business,” he said.

According to IBTimes’ review of email correspondence between Jeb Bush, his top aides and Southern Strategy Group lobbyists, the firm frequently engineered meetings with the governor for its clients. A lobbyist at the firm helped write two of his major speeches. In some instances, Bush sought the direct input of Southern Strategy lobbyists as he crafted his legislative agenda, and he gave them private glimpses of public policy as they represented the corporate interests that had a financial stake in his decisions.

Bush’s campaign and Southern Strategy Group did not respond to questions from IBTimes about the propriety of their relationship. 

Ron Book, a top Tallahassee lobbyist, said he was “taken by surprise” by Bush’s depiction of himself as a crusader against the lobbying industry. When Bush was governor, “I never felt like I didn’t get an opportunity to make my case on behalf of my clients,” Book told IBTimes. “I never felt like he shut us out.” 

Though Bush has been criticizing what he calls “swarms of lobbyists” that dominate politics, he has tapped lobbyists aggressively for campaign contributions. Florida records show that he raised $1.1 million from lawyers and lobbyists for his gubernatorial campaigns. Bush also approved a plan to marshal corporate lobbyists to push a bill exempting financial firms from the state’s open records laws.

As Bush presses his run for the White House, he is being closely advised by Sally Bradshaw, his former chief of staff when he was Florida governor. Sally Bradshaw is the wife of Paul Bradshaw, who founded the Southern Strategy Group. One of the firm’s lobbyists is reportedly raising money for Bush’s 2016 run.

According to state records, Southern Strategy’s legislative specialist, Thrasher, began lobbying that year for the Florida Hospital Association, whose members had a direct financial stake in limiting the size of malpractice awards. Emails show that Thrasher and Bush were in direct communication about the best strategy for gaining the necessary votes on the bill.

Two months later in May, Thrasher updated Bush on efforts in the legislature. Thrasher recommended Bush call a special legislative session to focus on medical malpractice, once a budget was passed. Thrasher told Bush the special session “gives you the maximum leverage.”

Bush convened a special session the following month — the first of three that would be focused on capping payouts in medical malpractice cases. That August, Florida lawmakers passed the bill that Bush signed, setting a $500,000 limit on jury awards for damages such as pain and suffering in most medical malpractice cases.

Last year, the Florida Supreme Court struck down the law, portraying it as a giveaway to the insurance industry.

“The cap on noneconomic damages serves no purpose other than to arbitrarily punish the most grievously injured or their surviving family members,” the court declared.

In September 2006, with real estate prices in free fall and panic seizing much of the state’s economy, Bush and state officials were debating the merits of a proposed $50 million purchase of forest and wetlands near Orlando, Florida, to protect it from possible future development. The land under consideration was called “Joshua Creek.” It was owned by a developer called Land South Hunters, which was itself an affiliate of Land South Holdings, a company that enjoyed the labors of a well-connected lobbyist in Tallahassee — Rancourt of the Southern Strategy Group.

Bush voiced concerns that the state was paying far too much at a time in which Florida real estate values were plummeting. “I get emotional when a guy a year ago bought something for $32 million and wants to sell it to us for $50 [million],” said Bush, according to minutes from the meeting. “The worm has turned on real estate prices. Every article in the paper, every paper is writing about it. And I just do not believe that we should necessarily be the purchaser that always shows up with the big number.”

After hearing from Bush, state officials opted to defer voting on land acquisition for two weeks. Rancourt then emailed Bush after the meeting seeking to get together to discuss the land deal.

“My purpose is not to make the case for any specific agreement but merely to ascertain if additional information would make it worthwhile to continue discussions on this piece of property,” Rancourt said. “I am happy to arrive alone or to have my client from Lakeland with me at the meeting if that would be beneficial. That is your call of course, as well as if you are interested in sitting down at all. I would appreciate the opportunity but will understand if you have made your decision.”

Bush responded later that night. “Thank you David. If we can schedule something, I am happy to meet,” he wrote. Bush said his aide would meet with Rancourt otherwise, and blind-copied two members of his staff on the email. Two weeks later, Bush and top state officials discussed the project again, with Land South Hunters’ owner and lawyer present.

“If we purchase this, you’re going to make a great profit without any development risk,” Bush told the lawyer, according to minutes of the meeting. “We’re buying it from you, and we don’t factor that into our appraisal. I think that’s just wrong.”

Those concerns notwithstanding, Bush and his cabinet voted to approve the terms of the deal. Not for the first time, Southern Strategy Group had appeared to deliver for its client.