During his speech in a Florida State University on Monday, the candidate bashed influence peddlers once again and proposed series of reforms aimed at restraining lobbyists' power in the D.C. The most notable of his suggestions would be prolonging the ban on ex-members of Congress from entering into lobbying for up to six years. The goal would be hard to accomplish without tightening up the definition of "lobbying", as there's a loophole to avoid being registered as a lobbyist.
An interesting fact is that the forum at which Jeb Bush performed his speech was organized by the Chamber of Commerce. And somewhat 44 current or former lobbyists attended a fundraising luncheon in Jeb Bush' honor held June 19 in the US capital.
While open about his anti-lobbying plans, Bush has nevertheless accepted generous campaign donations from lobbyists. Eight registered lobbyists raised $228,400 for Bush in the first 15 days of his campaign.
But what probably contradicts the most with Bush's concerns about the influence of lobbyists is the fact that he was himself a registered lobbyist on behalf of Codina Bush Group and a country club development in 1991, the Associated Press reported. From 1987 to 1988 he was Florida's Secretary of Commerce, which means he made the transition to lobbying industry in just 3 years after he stopped being a public official, this is half of a six-year ban in suggested reform.
What is worthy of notice, as Florida governor, Bush pushed a law which required lobbyists to disclose their compensation and prohibited plying lawmakers with meals and gifts. "I was a governor who refused to accept that as the normal or right way of conducting the people's business," Bush said.
