Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is adding staff to his likely presidential campaign, including a Wall Street investment firm director and a strategist instrumental in U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's landslide win last year.
The National Review reported last night that Bush soon will name Justin Muzinich, vice chairman of the New York City investment firm Muzinich & Co., as policy director. It noted that Bush announced last month that he was bringing on April Ponnuru, “a leading member of the reform-conservative movement (and the wife of National Review’s Ramesh Ponnuru) as a senior policy adviser.”
Muzinich is working part-time with Bush on some policy issues, a person with knowledge of the arrangement said Thursday, and will play a senior role -- likely policy director -- if Bush moves ahead with a potential campaign.
The Democratic opposition group, American Bridge, criticized the Muzinich hire, saying his experience at a hedge fund “certainly won't do anything to help the perception that Jeb doesn't represent the values of the middle class.”
Scott Jennings, a Louisville, Ky., Republican strategist and former adviser to former President George W. Bush, is joining Bush's political action committee, Right to Rise, as a senior adviser, the Lexington Herald-Leader reports, noting that Jennings “would be in line for a senior role on the campaign, most likely as national political director, if Jeb Bush goes ahead with a run for the White House.”
In an email message to the Herald-Leader, Jennings said "Bush has a strong record of cutting taxes, protecting life and finding ways to reform government with solid conservative ideas."
Jennings, who ran former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's losing 2012 battle in Ohio, was a key player in McConnell's overwhelming win over Democratic Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes in last year's U.S. Senate race.
His firm, RunSwitch PR, handled the super PAC Kentuckians for Strong Leadership and the issues group Kentucky Opportunity Coalition, both of which flooded the airways on McConnell's behalf.