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This Candidate Isn't Quite His Daddy's Boy By RICHARD L. BERKE ing the son of a famous man. A lot of ence professor at the University of Specialio The New York Times sons of famous people jump out win- Florida. 'You could argue that may- ORLANDO, Fla.. Aug. 29 - The dows." be he's searching for his own identity. reason Jeb Bush is the front-run- Yet ΓaTcTy on the stump does he But like his father, he's a very prag- ner in the Republican primary for make more than a passing mention of matic politician. He's put himself governor of Florida next week may his father (to whom he did turn to firmly on the right and dared anyone be that he is George Bush's son. help him raise money in March, when else to get close. I don't think anyone the former President played host at has." But on the campaign trail, he is nine fund-raising events in a three- more the political offspring of a But Mr. Bush says his conserva- day tour of the state). It may be that conservative firebrand like Newt tism runs far deeper than that. He Jeb simply wants to be his own man, Gingrich, the House Republican paints himself as one of a new gener- personally and ideologically. Then, ation of Republicans who espouse whip, than of his split-the-differ- too, there is the need to put at least "provocative views" in their drive to ence father. some measure of daylight between be far more aggressive in taking on If President Bush could Ping- himself and his father's mistakes. entrenched politicians. "I don't cloak Pong between classic Rockefeller When he and his rivals were asked my language to try to be all things to Republicanism and sometime con- in a debate here in Orlando on Sunday all people," he said. servatism, the son is a candidate night whether they would promise He sounds almost regretful of the never to raise taxes, Mr. Bush knew who clings firmly to one side of the go-along, get-along Republicanism better than to take the bait. "I am a net. Moving far beyond the routine student of history, and I am not going that allowed his father to climb the anti-government rhetoric of many to make any no-new-taxes pledges," rungs of the party all the way to the Republicans, his father included, he said as the audience broke into White House. "People of my dad's John Ellis Bush (he has been laughter. "You may appreciate generation were participants in the known by his initials since child- why." expansion of government," he said. hood) lashes out at government as Yet Mr. Bush, whose father's politi- "Maybe they tried to slow it down, a genuinely dangerous force. cal fortunes plummeted after he but they were part of it. It was untest- broke his famous no-taxes pledge of ed whether all this stuff would work. And although he had a privileged 1988, was not about to let his audience Now someone from my generation of upbringing that sent him to the in this conservative stronghold in thinking can look at it from the per- right prep schools before his fam central Florida think he would be spective of the 80's and 20's and say, ily name helped nim make millions receptive to more taxation. His alter- 'Nice try, but it doesn't work.' in business ventures, he has little native: any tax increase would first "I don't see Republicans in Wash- patience for those who cannot pull need approval in a statewide referen- ington under standing this yet. But I THE NEW YORK TIMES, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1994 themselves up on their own. A fa- bet there's a ton of them all around dum. vorite theme of his is "the virtue 01 the country. I know there are a lot Help for the Coffers here that are willing to be more con- work," and at least once during the Notwithstanding the ideological frontational about these basic philo- campaign he has declared that distance between the two men, name sophical differences that we have." women on welfare "should be able recognition has surely been a help to These days Mr. Bush finds himself to get their life together and find a Jeb Bush's campaign and particu- to the right of not only his father but husband." larly to the campaign's coffers. With also his mother, Barbara, who recent- Mr. Bush is a 41-year-old Miami his father's help, he has raised nearly ly made known her support for abor- developer whose only service in $4.5 million, more than twice as much tion rights and who teases him about public office has been as Florida as any of the four other major candi- his rightward tilt. "She says I'm Commerce Secretary, an appoint- dates in the Republican field. (He is more conservative than she is," he ive post, in 1987-88. He speaks flu- the only candidate, Republican or said, "and she's right." Democrat, who has rejected volun- ent Spanish and is a true celebrity tary state spending limits and the The Real Thing among the state's Hispanic popula- public campaign financing that goes He is also more conservative than tion, partly because of his wife with them.) his older brother, George W. Bush, Columba, whom he me! in a stu- For all of that, Mr. Bush says, he the Republican nominee for governor dent exchange program in her na- would not be the front-runner were it of Texas, who had no major opposi- tive Mexico when he was 17. And not for tireless campaigning and an tion in the primary and who, now he has an easy one-on-one way with appealing message. "Ask Hugh Rod- needing to win swing votes away people. ham,' he said of Hillary Rodham from Gov. Ann W. Richards, has But from the podium he is vocif- Clinton's brother, whose candidacy avoided any aggressive pursuit of re- for the Democratic Senate nomina- erous (if somewhat colorless). in- ligious conservatives. tion in Florida, polls find, is not taken veighing against government, call- Whatever the positions taken by his very seriously. "I had to achieve ing for abolition of the state's Edu- family, Jeb Bush, who has his father's credibility." cation Department and declaring Although Mr. Bush is favored to lanky frame but looks more like his that the solution to crime is a vast mother, seems to have convinced draw the most votes in the primary, many conservatives that he is genu- prison construction plan and long- Iset for Sept. 8, it is virtually certain ine. Most recently he received the er jail terms for offenders. In his that he will not do well enough to endorsement of the American Family vigorous courting of religious con- avoid a runoff with the second-place Association, a group opposed to gay servatives, he says he too opposes finisher. rights. homosexual rights measures and His two best-known competitors "I think President Bush talked con- abortion, and favors corporal pun- are veterans of state government. servative; I don't think he was one," ishment and prayer in the schools. who have staked out more moderate said Phil Robertson, an Orlando ther- His running mate for lieutenant positions: Jim Smith, the Florida Sec- apist who heard the candidates speak governor, State Representative retary of State, and Tom Gallagher, here on Sunday. "But Jeb is still not a the state's Insurance Commissioner. Tom Feeney, the Christian Coali- known quantity." The other major candidates are State Matthew White, a developer who tion's Florida legislator of the year in Senator Ander Crenshaw and Ken attended a Jeb Bush rally here, said 1993, assured conservatives in a re- cent letter that "Jeb is committed to Connor, a Tallahassee lawyer. The he liked the son much more than the victor will take on the Democratic father. "He's straightforward; he's a radically different type of govern- incumbent, Gov. Lawton Chiles, who not wishy-washy on the issues," Mr. ment." In closing, Mr. Feeney sought is considered less vulnerable since to distance Mr. Bush from the former White said, adding that he could count President, who has never been trust- prevailing on Washington to act on Mr. Bush to tell off the "environ- against the new Cuban exodus to mental wackos." ed by the party's conservative wing. Florida. Should Mr. Bush win the primary, "I believe that the costs of holding the his views that are so popular with sins of the father against Jeb," Mr. Feeney wrote, "may be that the real A New Republican conservatives may not play as well conservative agenda in Florida is among Florida voters at large. But he dead for decades." To be sure, there is a pragmatic sounds convinced that his brand of reason for Mr. Bush to position him- Republicanism - not his father's - 'I Won't Dissociate Myself' self to the right of his campaign ri- is the brand of the future. Jeb Bush would never so starkly vals. In a crowded field of well-known A well-wisher ran up to him in a separate himself from his father's candidates, he needs to give Florid- hotel lobby the other day and gushed: record. "I want people to know that ians a reason, other than his last "Give your mom and dad my love. I'm not trying to disengage myself name, to vote for him. Tell him we need him back." Mr. from this obvious relationship I have "1 think he's afraid of getting out- Bush turned to the woman and with the former President of the Unit- flanked on the right in the same way smiled. "Well," he said, "he's not ed States," he said in an interview. "I his dad was outflanked on the right in coming back." won't dissociate myself. I long ago the later days of his Administration," overcame any insecurities about be- said Richard Scher, a political sci-