Jeb Bush Caught Rigging CPAC Straw Poll

The Jeb Bush campaign bused in supporters, who were not attending CPAC, to cheer on Jeb Bush and vote for him in the annual CPAC straw poll, Breitbart News reported today. The Conservative Political Action Conference, known as CPAC, attracts thousands of conservative and Republican activists at its annual conference, where it also conducts a straw poll for the upcoming GOP presidential primary. Former two-term Florida Governor Jeb Bush is one of several candidates expected to run for the GOP nomination for president in 2016.

“Perhaps in fear that he didn’t have enough backers willing to show up on their own, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s campaign organized to bus supporters to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) to cheer during his appearance on stage and vote for him in the straw poll,” Breitbart News reported.

Breitbart reported that Betsy Woodruff of the liberal online magazine Slate had possession of emails proving the Jeb Bush campaign bused in supporters from K Street to support the candidate in the CPAC straw poll.

Woodruff reported in Slate that Fritz Brogan, who is affiliated with Jeb Bush’s Right to Rise PAC, sent out an email to supporters which in part read, “We strongly recommend arriving as early as possible to get a seat, Our ‘Early Rise’ team will be there at 7:30am onward helping reserve seats- if you want to join the early team, let me know.”

“One long-time CPAC insider said these organized efforts impressed him, and that he didn’t know of any other potential 2016 candidates busing backers in. Perhaps that’s because no other potential candidates are worried about the regular crowd turning against them—the Washington Times reports today that some CPAC attendees are planning ‘to stage an informal protest when he hits the stage,'” Woodruff wrote for Slate.

The suggestion from some conservatives would be that Jeb Bush is too far to the left for most of the attendees at CPAC and that explains why the Jeb Bush campaign would bus in supporters to help him make a stronger finish in the straw poll.

The question has been raised about whether Jeb Bush is too liberal to win the GOP nomination for president, the Inquisitr reported last December. Many conservatives see Bush as a more “liberal” or “moderate” GOP candidate than most if not all of the other politicians seeking the Republican nomination for president in 2016.

“Could Jeb Bush, former Florida governor and brother of President George W. Bush, be too liberal to win the GOP nomination in 2016? This is the question raised by Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight. Bush has been perceived by some to be moving in the ‘liberal’ direction by making statements in favor of comprehensive immigration reform and ‘Common Core’ education policies, among other issues on which Jeb Bush has made major states,” the Inquisitr reported.

The CPAC straw poll scandal won’t do much to help Jeb Bush gain support among the conservative voters who make up the base of the Republican Party and who also turn out for GOP primary and caucus contests.

Image of Jeb Bush at CPAC 2015 from www.cnn.com.