Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) is enlisting more than two dozen former aides to his brother and father, as he prepares for a likely 2016 presidential run.
Bush’s list of more than 20 advisers includes Paul Wolfowitz, a former World Bank president who was an architect of the second Iraq War while serving at the Pentagon; Stephen Hadley, a former national security adviser to President George W. Bush; and Meghan O’Sullivan, another Bush aide on Iraq.
{mosads}Other George W. Bush aides assisting Jeb Bush include former Secretaries of Homeland Security Tom Ridge and Michael Chertoff, former CIA Directors Michael Hayden and Porter Goss and ex-attorney general Michael Mukasey. John Negroponte, who served as the director of national intelligence in the George W. Bush administration, is also counseling Jeb Bush.
Former Secretaries of State James Baker and George Schultz, who have close ties to the Bush family, are lending a hand as well. Baker led the team from George W. Bush’s 2000 campaign that helped him secure Florida’s electoral college votes.
With his presidential run taking shape, Bush is looking to burnish his policy credentials while distinguishing himself from his brother and father. He said in 2013 that there is no “Bush baggage” that would prevent him from running.
“I love my father and my brother. I admire their service to the nation and the difficult decisions they had to make,” he will say on Wednesday at an event in Chicago. “But I am my own man — and my views are shaped by my own thinking and own experiences.”
The news about Bush’s advisers was first reported by The Washington Post and Reuters.