For months, Jeb Bush has insisted he’s his “own man.”
Now, he’s mobilizing his family’s expansive network as he searches for momentum amid the dominance of Donald Trump and the rise of Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz.
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Starting next month, Bush’s campaign will deploy hundreds of his brother and father’s former White House aides to early primary states to assist in canvassing and get-out-the-vote efforts. The plan, which has been hashed out in private emails and phone calls for months, is taking on new urgency as the primary season grows closer.
In a conference call last Friday with Bush alumni, Sally Bradshaw, Bush’s longtime senior adviser, delivered an upbeat assessment of the campaign’s progress, while Josh Bolten, George W. Bush’s former White House chief of staff, pumped up Jeb Bush as the right leader for the times. The message, according to one person on the call: We need you.
Since the very beginning of his troubled White House run, the former Florida governor has bristled at critics who say America doesn’t need another Bush in the Oval Office, and who bring up his brother’s handling of the war in Iraq and his stewardship of the federal budget as strikes against Jeb.
Bush, though, has also appeared torn about the degree to which he should assume his family lineage —— embracing his father and brother as people, while at times distancing himself from their policies. “When you love someone or your brother or your dad, it’s not easy for me to throw them under the bus to make myself look better. I just can’t do that,” he told ABC News in June.

But now, Bush’s campaign hopes to turn his family into an advantage, exploiting a network that none of his rivals can lay claim to: a nationwide group of loyal foot soldiers who, over the course of decades, have powered the Bush dynasty.

His supporters do not lack for energy. Many of them are prepared to spend their upcoming weekends braving the frigid winters of Iowa and New Hampshire, knocking on doors, planting yard signs and making sure people vote for Bush.

“I’m a Florida boy. I’m not a fan of the cold,” said Fritz Brogan, a Washington, D.C., restaurateur and fundraiser who served as an aide in the George W. Bush White House and said he is among an army of volunteers planning to come out in force. “But I’ll do it for Jeb Bush.”

“There is no doubt that this is an advantage for the campaign,” he added. “I think this is a secret weapon.”

“He’s got bunch of supporters around the country who will do whatever they can to help his effort,” said David Bates, who served as George H.W. Bush’s deputy chief of staff during his vice presidency and then was secretary to the Cabinet after the elder Bush won the White House. Bates, who has known Jeb Bush for decades, plans to go to New Hampshire right before the Feb. 9 primary to canvass for him.

In addition to the White House alums, Bush’s aides say they they’re reaching out to a number of prospective volunteers, including the candidate’s former staffers from his terms as governor and a group of students and young professionals. Last month, Bush’s son Jeb Bush Jr. emailed supporters asking them to fill out an electronic form allowing them to detail their availability to help out.

“I know you have already gone above and beyond, but I am asking you to go the extra mile,” he wrote. Bush volunteers are expected to begin working in Iowa on Jan. 2.

“One important key for our campaign in getting voters committed to Jeb Bush is sharing his story — as a governor, as a leader, as a businessman, and as a father, husband and grandfather,” explained Kristy Campbell, a Bush spokeswoman. “We think validators can serve an important role in our ground game in early states and throughout the calendar.”

By the time of the Iowa caucuses on Feb. 1, Bush’s campaign hopes to have enlisted White House alumni from around the country. Most of them will fan out to the nearest early voting state: Those living on the West Coast, for example, are expected to focus their efforts in Nevada.

“I think it will be a pretty massive undertaking,” said Brogan, who can recall working for Bush’s 1998 gubernatorial campaign as a youth organizer. Last week, Brogan hosted Bush at Chinese Disco, a popular Georgetown bar he co-owns.

Helping to lead the alumni effort are Bates; Brian McCormack, a vice president for political and external affairs at the Edison Electric Institute who served as Vice President Dick Cheney’s personal aide and also worked for George W. Bush; Lanny Griffith, George H.W. Bush’s assistant secretary of education; and Therese Burch, a co-founder of a lifestyle advisory company who was a top advance and scheduling aide in George W. Bush’s White House and also worked for his father.

The former aides have remained in close contact throughout Jeb Bush’s campaign, assisting on everything from phone-banking to fundraising. About a year ago, as Bush began exploring a presidential bid, Burch started a Bush alumni email list that, she said, immediately drew around 500 sign-ups. Around Labor Day, former first lady Barbara Bush emailed the list members thanking them for their help.

After starting the race as the front-runner, Bush has found himself eclipsed by louder and more rambunctious voices — a dynamic that has left many of those who worked for the patrician Bush family perplexed.

But the Bush veterans say they haven’t lost hope — in large measure because they’ve seen the family run into roadblocks before. In 1988, George H.W. Bush finished a distant third in Iowa before going on to win New Hampshire. In 2000, George W. Bush was blown out in New Hampshire before staging a comeback in South Carolina.

“We have been through this before and we understand this is a process, and we want to be part of the process,” said Burch. “What people aren’t seeing that that there is a machine out there to get Jeb elected.”

It’s not the first time Bush alumni have mobilized for the former governor. In February, as he expected to face a hostile group of tea party activists at the Conservative Political Action Conference — a presidential cattle call held just outside Washington, D.C. — a group of former Bush White House aides raced there to support him.

The ties that bind the Bush aides to the family are close and long-lasting — a dynamic, some of them say, that was forged in the days after Sept. 11, 2001. It’s no accident that some of Jeb Bush’s loudest supporters also worked for his brother.

“We worked for him on the day America was attacked, and I think it was tough for a lot of people,” said McCormack, who plans to go soon to South Carolina and New Hampshire for Jeb Bush.

Many of the former aides speak in similar terms — they see themselves as warriors for the Bush clan and are willing to do whatever it takes to help him win.

“There are going to be a lot of foot soldiers out there,” said Burch.

By Alex Isenstadt

Politico     December 10, 2015