Jeb Bush Is Slow to Catch Fire in Iowa By Reid J. Epstein And Rebecca Ballhaus….see note please

Posted By on June 17th, 2015

http://www.wsj.com/articles/jeb-bush-is-slow-to-catch-fire-in-iowa-1434533403

Well there is this other candidate from Florida who ignites interest…..Senator Marco Rubio….rsk

Even family loyalists are yet to commit to the former Florida governor

MOUNT PLEASANT, Iowa—Jeb Bush likely will have the most money of any Republican running for president in 2016. He leads the field or shares a top position in national polling.

But so far in Iowa, Mr. Bush is a laggard, tied for fifth place in early opinion surveys.

When the former Florida governor arrives on Wednesday for his first Iowa rally as a declared presidential candidate, he’ll encounter a Republican voting pool whose most conservative members are wary of some of his policy stances. But even some of Iowa’s longtime Bush family loyalists are hesitant to push for a third Bush president or say they are holding off until the campaign shows it is committed to competing in the state with the first nominating contest.

State Rep. Mary Ann Hanusa worked in the White House for President George H.W. Bush, and under President George W. Bush she led the Office of Presidential Personal Correspondence, a role that included responsibility for vetting the letters the president signed personally. “I was the only Iowan working in the West Wing on 9/11,” she said.

But Ms. Hanusa isn’t a Jeb Bush supporter. She said she met him for the first time in March on his first visit to Iowa, and Mr. Bush, she said, still has to work to win support from her and others in the state.

“People just haven’t had the opportunity either personally or through media coverage to be exposed to him,” Ms. Hanusa said.

Douglas Gross, the Iowa finance chairman for George W. Bush’s re-election bid, has emerged as a chief Iowa critic of Jeb’s campaign, saying he hasn’t devoted sufficient resources to the state.

“I’m disappointed with the status of the campaign,” Mr. Gross said. “I thought they would be farther along than they are.”

These Iowans fit Mr. Bush’s profile as a business-friendly, establishment Republican. Among rank-and-file Iowans who will dominate the party’s February caucuses, doubts linger over a perceived lack of attention to social issues by Mr. Bush, as well as over his support for legal status for undocumented immigrants and for the Common Core education standards.

At a Monday night meeting here of the Henry County GOP, John Hendrickson lamented the absence of any specific mention of Mr. Bush’s opposition to abortion rights in his campaign announcement speech.

“If Republicans abandon the social issues, the party will be destroyed,” said Mr. Hendrickson, a research analyst at the Public Interest Institute, which advocates limited government. “I think Bush is making a mistake not to stand up for those issues.”

Troy Eichelberger, co-chairman of the Henry County Republicans, said Iowa suffers from “Bush fatigue.” If Mr. Bush wins the party’s nomination, he said, GOP voters will be “deflated,” and it could cost them the general election.

Of course, success in Iowa isn’t always a prerequisite to winning the nomination—Sen. John McCain placed a distant fourth in 2008—and unlike some in the GOP field, Mr. Bush is expected to have enough money to overcome any stumbles in early-voting states. He also has signaled he won’t change policy positions to suit conservative voters in early states; many Republicans believe Mitt Romney’s policy stances early in the 2012 cycle left him ill-positioned for the general election.

Mr. Bush has dismissed suggestions that he won’t make a full commitment to competing in Iowa. “It’s my intention to win, period,” he told reporters in Iowa City in mid-May.

Ahead of his campaign trip Wednesday, Mr. Bush will announce a slate of Iowa supporters that includes new faces, such as state Rep. Zach Nunn, who was first elected last year, and veterans such as Renee Schulte, a former state representative who was among the first Iowans to endorse Mr. Romney’s 2012 campaign.

“Bush has staying power, leadership and a proven track record,” said Mr. Nunn, who represents suburbs east of Des Moines. “Come caucus time in Iowa, I think he is well positioned to be a dominant force.”

The leader of Mr. Romney’s 2012 Iowa team, David Kochel, moved to Miami earlier this year to work on Mr. Bush’s team. But some of Mr. Romney’s other leading Iowa supporters haven’t signed on to the Bush effort.

Davenport attorney Brian Kennedy, Iowa chairman for Mr. Romney’s campaign, isn’t aligned with any candidate. He said Iowa Republicans are withholding support because they worry Mr. Bush won’t devote much attention to the state.

“There’s a lot of people who are very open-minded. They’re waiting to see, ‘Does Bush come to Iowa?’ ” he said.

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