Chaffetz on Jeb: ‘Been there, done that’

A Jeb Bush candidacy wouldn’t give Republicans the best chance of winning back the White House in 2016, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) said in an interview published Tuesday.

“Regardless of what Mitt Romney does, I don’t know how excited anybody could be with Jeb Bush’s candidacy,” Chaffetz told The Washington Post, who said he will support Bush if he wins the nomination. “But I want to win the White House and I don’t like the idea of another Bush-Clinton race. Been there, done that.”

“Three different Bushes aren’t necessarily a fresh face,” he said.

Chaffetz, the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, said Romney had reached out to him to assure him that the reports about him considering another run for the White House were true. The Post reported on Monday night that Romney had been making similar calls to top GOP donors.

With Bush launching a political action committee and moving toward a White House bid, Romney might be feeling new pressure to make a decision. The two are both considered establishment favorites and would be competing for many of the same donors should they both run.

Chaffetz has seemed to be supportive of a Romney 2016 campaign in the past. In July, he said he believed Romney would run and that “he will be the next president of the United States.”

Amid the 2016 jockeying, Chaffetz’s own star is rising in the GOP thanks to his new role as chairman of the powerful Oversight and Government Reform Committee. He inherited the gavel from Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), who was forced to leave the position due to term limits.

Chaffetz has his own history with the Bush family, dating back to 2008 when was elected to his first term in the House by taking down then-Rep. Chris Cannon (R-Utah). Former President George W. Bush, Jeb’s brother, endorsed Cannon in the primary.

“I don’t owe [the establishment] anything,” Chaffetz told The Hill at the time.