Kyrillos Backing Jeb Bush For President
State Senator Joe Kyrillos is backing former Florida Governor Jeb Bush for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination.
According to The Washington Post, Bush spokesman Tim Miller confirmed that Kyrillos is backing the son and brother of 41st and 43rd presidents to become the 45th. Kyrillos contributed $10,000 to Bush’s political action committee last month.
The news that Kyrillos is supporting Bush over his decades long friend and ally, Governor Chris Christie, caps the news cycle for a day in which a Quinnipiac Poll reported that New Jersey voters don’t approve of the Governor’s job performance at home and don’t think he would make a good president. A CNN poll also released Monday places Christie in 7th place among GOP presidential hopefuls with support of only 4% or Republicans and Republican leaning Independents nationally. Just four months ago, a full year after the Bridgegate scandal broke, Christie ranked second for the 2016 GOP nomination in CNN’s poll with support of 13% of the respondents.
Chairman of Christie’s successful 2009 gubernatorial campaign, the two men have been personal friends and political allies for decades. Kyrillos swore Christie into his first elected office, Morris County Freeholder, in 1994. Christie introduced Kyrillos to his wife Susan.
Contrary to reports that their relationship soured over Christie’s lukewarm support for his 2012 U.S. Senate bid and Christie choosing Jeff Chiesa to replace the late Frank Lautenberg in the U.S. Senate, Kyrillos was still solidly in Christie’s presidential corner through 2013. Kyrillos was one of six Republican state senators to go along with Christie’s unsuccessful attempt to replace Tom Kean, Jr as Senate Minority Leader in the immediate aftermath of the 2013 election. Christie was reelected by 21 points in that election but had no coattails in the legislative races as Democrats retained control of both houses of the State Legislature.
Sources close to Kyrillos said that revelations during the Bridgegate investigation are what lead the senator to question the presidential timber of his long term friend and ally, Christie.
Kyrillos’s relationship with Bush and the Bush family also goes back decades. Kyrillos worked for Vice President George H. W. Bush during the 1984 Reagan-Bush reelection campaign and landed a job as Special Assistant to the Secretary of the Interior Donald Hodel during the first two years of the second Reagan term. As Chairman of the NJGOP from 2001-2004, Kyrillos deepened his relationship with Bush who was them Governor of Florida and brother of the President. Bush held a successful fundraiser for Kyrillos’s 2012 U. S. Senate bid.
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“…Sources close to Kyrillos said that revelations during the Bridgegate investigation are what lead the senator to question the presidential timber of his long term friend and ally, Christie…”
Really? I don’t buy the above line. If revelations during the Bridgegate investigation were so appalling to Kyrillos, why did he fail and refuse to override Christie to REFORM the Port Authority??
Kyrillos—and all the other Republican senators voted to do just that; however, when Christie vetoed the bill, the senators that initially voted for reform, failed to support their original vote, thus failing to override the emperor.
Kyrillos is a big failure in my eyes. He is doing what’s politically expedient for himself. He knows Christie doesn’t have a prayer in hell to compete for president.
Kyrillos’ lack to override the governor tells me he supports corruption, mismanagement, and non-transparency.
Doherty voted to override
Truth, your right and I knew that. I forgot to mention that–thanks. Doherty is the only one with guts and integrity to stand up to CC
Early poll numbers are usually a major indicator of a candidate’s recognition. The CNN polling indicates to me that Christie might need to raise at least $150 million primary money to have a fighting chance “correct” his name problem.
Impossible in this competitive year.
I would prefer to see Christie put his time and remaining political capital into running for the NJ Senate.
Oops!
My posting was on the wrong article.
However, the Kyrillos move only confirms my opinion that Christie is crazy to throw away his dwindling political capital on a wasteful Presidential run when he still has enough left to have a reasonable shot at a future US Senate run.
Just my two cents but I think the best thing Christie can do is spend his remaining term as Governor trying to fix what has become a tital wave of ignored state problems. Maybe have a couple of achievements by the time his term is up and then he can figure out what office he might want to run for in the future.
to get back to DC for a job?? Better chance supporting Jeb, early on- the Guv ain’t polling too well right now, is he?
Bush and Rubio: The Next President and Vice President?
I was watching ABC Evening News on Monday, April 13, 2015, as Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos asked the newly-declared presidential candidate, Florida Senator Marco Rubio, how he could run against his friend and mentor, former governor of Florida Jeb Bush, and still remain friends! Without blinking, Rubio said there was no problem whatsoever. Rubio lamely claimed he was not running against his mentor, but rather the two of them were vying for the same position! At first, it sounded like doubletalk, gobbledygook. Rubio was implying even Jeb could have run against his brother, George, for the presidency in 1999, and still remain “brothers!” Then I momentarily recalled Florida was about 26 per cent Hispanic. Moreover, Jeb Bush’s wife is from Mexico. It dawned on me that there was an “unholy alliance” in the making.
Presumably, sometime in mid-December, 2014, just a few days before Christmas and everyone was busy shopping and getting ready for Christmas, Rubio sneaked into a modest Dorchester Hotel in Palm Beach, FL, where Jeb Bush was waiting for him in Room 404. After small talk, Bush went straight to the point: He told Rubio despite his reported presidential aspirations, he didn’t stand a chance. The presidency is a WASP position (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant), and male, he must have added. With Catholics amounting to about 25 per cent against 51 percent Protestant, virtually every president, except JFK, has been protestant. That’s why a Mormon like Mitt Romney didn’t stand a chance either, Bush added by way of elaboration. As if it was necessary, he stated an African-American has better chances of becoming president than a Latino: As former slaves and southern economy builders, African-Americans are more American than Hispanics. And, above all, Rubio lacked the name, deep roots, and old money. Bush also mentioned in passing that, thanks to week-day voting day, Latino daily wage-earners cannot afford to take the day off. He didn’t need to mention that, unlike the United States, many countries hold elections on Sundays to be more inclusive.
What about Hillary Clinton, Rubio wondered, implying they were both minorities. Bush did not beat around the bush: The nation — womenfolk included — was not yet ready for a female president. Such a notion has not yet become part of the national consciousness. Besides, he added, in the book, “An African Student in Russia,” it is stipulated that unless there is 50-50 male-female representation in each branch of government, including male-female president/vice-president arrangement, democracy has yet to exist in America, or elsewhere for that matter. Only Rwanda is coming close, with over 50 percent females in parliament. Thus, in the current “homocracy” (male rule), the presidency will be the domain of men until there are mass marches to Washington to demand establishment of true democracy. Besides, some women resent the idea of a female president out of envy and/or pettiness.
When Rubio asked if Bush was indirectly urging him give up the presidential aspirations and stay put in the Senate, he was flabbergasted when Bush stated he would very much want him to run for the presidency. Anticipating a look of incredulity in his protégé’s eyes, Bush elaborated: Rubio would run for the presidency like all the rest, but end up with better chances of becoming Bush’s vice president. In due course, Rubio would maximize his chances of becoming president in 2020.
Then Bush laid down the uncanny plan. Rubio and others would run against Bush during the primaries, including going at him like no body’s business. The goal was to split the Republican votes among as many contenders and pretenders as possible. At the end of the day, Bush would emerge the winner. And here is the sweet part: Even if Rubio comes in last, he would make him his running mate.
When Rubio wondered as to why Bush would not select the runner-up to be his vice president, Bush explained the division of labor between the two of them stood a better chance of guaranteeing victory than any other combo. Rubio was all ears, ready to hear what Bush had in mind: Geographically, whereas Bush’s responsibility would be to win New England, the Mid-West and parts of the South, Rubio’s mission was to bring in the states with considerable Latino populations, notably his home state of Florida (26% Latino, with 29 electoral votes), New Mexico (47 %, 5), California (38%, 55), Texas (38%, 38), Arizona (30 %, 11), and Nevada (27%, 6 electoral votes). It was unfortunate that, with 99 percent Latino, Puerto Rico does not have electoral votes, Bush lamented. If Rubio could win over at least the total of 144 electoral votes, Bush was sure of adding at least the remaining 126 votes to reach the required 270 electoral votes and voila, they are in the White House.
When it came to the target groups and districts, Bush’s responsibility would be to go after Wall Street where the moneymen are, while Rubio would concentrate on the Main Street where the family values are based. Bush would aim at the immigrants of yesteryears, while Rubio would target those of yesterday. Bush would hobnob with the hard-core conservatives, while Rubio would rub shoulders with soft-core Republicans and Centrist Democrats. Bush would cajole old money, while Rubio chases after the new rich. As Bush plays golf with the old generation, Rubio would shoot some hoops with young adults there. Men will be Bush’s constituency, while young women would Rubio’s. As Bush shows up in conservative media outlets, Rubio would frequent the liberal ones, including spending extra time at Telemundo and Univision. As Bush jokes with folks in suburban and rural America, Rubio would pay visits to blue color factory workers in inner cities. As Bush spends time in monolithic states with Anglo-Saxon majority populations, Rubio would hop from one multicultural state to another. The one issue they ought to tiptoe around it together will be the slippery rights of the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) populations. They will push the matter away from the federal platform toward the states, without openly agreeing, or disagreeing, with their demands for equal rights.
The Bush-Rubio dynamic duo would most likely face the Clinton-Chafee uncompromising team. This is when the claws will really come off. Bush’s responsibility would be to attack Clinton’s foreign policy, Benghazi and all, while Rubio would discredit her domestic policy initiatives, including her leading role in the abortive 1993 task force on national health care reform. While Bush attacks her usage of personal email account to conduct affairs of the state, Rubio should feel free to bring up old and seemingly redundant issues, ranging from whitewater, travelgate, and filegate scandals, down to White House counsel Foster’s death during the Clinton presidency. While at it, Rubio could play dirty and challenge Hillary as to why she did not rightfully sue Monica Lewinsky for infringing on her marital “real estate!”
As the meeting concluded, Rubio seemed to be happier than Bush for being more sure of becoming the vice president than winning the presidency. Jeb Assured him that, come 2020, the Bushes would join forces and whisk him to the White House by hooks and crooks if needed. That would make for a perfect story of a descendant of immigrants from Communist Cuba. The unholy alliance is executing its mission as you read this sentence.
Uh, yeah. Sure.