April 07, 2015 10:56 AM UTC

Jeb Bush, Everybody!

• 17 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE: KRDO-TV reports, not everyone in Colorado Springs was cheering Jeb Bush this morning during his stop there:

Bush was welcomed warmly on Monday, but not everyone was pleased to see him.

“He’s politicking. This is a conservative stronghold, this is a swing state, and we have to stop him. I think he should be booed to Republicans at any chance. He should be shamed out of the race,” said Stephen Maxner, a Colorado Springs resident who visited IHOP to speak his mind about Bush’s potential run for the presidency.

“Bush expressing his points of views to the veterans is wonderful, but he should not run for president,” said Maxner.

As the Tampa Bay Times’ Alex Leary reports, Jeb attempted to clear up a question about his having marked himself “Hispanic” on a voter registration form in 2009:

“I guess I signed the form and made a mistake,” Bush said in Colorado Springs. “Clearly I am who I am. It’s kind of bizarre to think that there’s some kind of plot here. … I must have signed the form when we moved. I am who I am. I’m proud of the fact that I live in Miami. I’m proud of the fact that I’m bilingual. But I’m certainly anglo. I’m not sure what the big deal is.”

Democrats were quick to hammer Jeb Bush and local Republicans by proxy. A statement from Colorado Democrats hits Rep. Mike Coffman at Jeb’s expense–literally:

Jeb Bush donated $1,000 to Coffman’s congressional campaign in 2014 – under the name “John Bush” – and headlined a rally to elect Coffman last year, too. Now Jeb’s back in town, for a breakfast in Colorado Springs and two campaign events in Denver – a fundraiser and at least one other public event, according to press reports.

“Mike Coffman’s a career politician who’s spent 26 years running for office and John ‘Jeb’ Bush is one of his biggest campaign supporters, so it’s only fitting Coffman would welcome Bush back to Colorado as he kicks off his presidential bid,” said Colorado Democratic Party spokesman Andrew Zucker.

Meanwhile liberal group ProgressNow Colorado poses the question a little differently: “does anyone in Colorado want another Bush for President?”

“The absolute last thing Coloradans want is a third Bush presidency,” said ProgressNow Colorado executive director Amy Runyon-Harms. “As Governor of Florida, Jeb Bush set the standard for crony right-wing politics in that state, much like his brother George W. Bush did as Governor of Texas. And we know what the last Bush to occupy the White House seven years ago left America in his wake: trillion-dollar deficits, endless wars, and an economy on the brink of collapse. Why would anyone want another Bush in the White House?”

“That Jeb Bush considers a closed session with the oil and gas industry at the Brown Palace to be a ‘town hall meeting’ shows how completely out of touch the Bush dynasty is from the people of Colorado,” said Runyon-Harms. “From Jeb Bush to Jeb’s cousin Walker Stapleton, whose obsession as Treasurer is slashing the earned pension benefits of thousands of Colorado employees, the Bush family’s throwback agenda is wrong for our state.”

Original post follows.

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The Denver Business Journal reports:

Jeb Bush, widely believed to be preparing a run for the presidency, is in swing-state Colorado today to talk energy.

The Republican former Florida governor will host a town hall-style meeting on energy development with energy-company employees at a downtown Denver hotel this afternoon, the Associated Press reports.

He planned to have breakfast with veterans at an International House of Pancakes in Colorado Springs earlier today.

We’ve heard rumors of a protest at the Brown Palace later today, but it’s tough to know what will materialize since word of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s visit to Colorado only spread yesterday. As for a “town hall” with the energy industry–at the Brown Palace–what kind of “town hall” is that? Maybe for the Bush family, a hob-nob session with the oil and gas industry is what you call outreach. But “town hall” seems like a stretch.

Jeb Bush has been criticized since making signals about a possible presidential run in 2016 as representative of the Republican Party’s past as opposed to its future. But Jeb’s upwardly mobile cousin, Colorado Treasurer Walker Stapleton, hopes you can see past the dynasty and embrace…well, the dynasty.

Either way, the attention our state gets in presidential years is lots of fun, and Jeb Bush is just the beginning. Flyover state no more, right?