Citing Florida’s Hurricane Recovery, Gov. Bush Will Skip GOP Convention

Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said Tuesday that he wouldn’t attend the Republican National Convention next week in New York because his state was still recovering from Hurricane Charley.

“There will be a role later on for me to play” in the presidential race, said the governor, brother of President Bush. “The recovery phase of this is important to get started and ... being up in New York is inappropriate.

“It’s appropriate for others but not for me,” he said.

Southwest Florida was hard hit by the hurricane Aug 13.

Bush said he had planned to have a limited campaign role anyway, saying he didn’t much like the national political scene.

“I just don’t like all that big-dog, big-foot national stuff,” said Bush, who attended the 2000 Republican National Convention in Philadelphia. “I’m going to help my brother and we’ve got a great team in place and they’re working really hard, but being on the ‘Today Show’ to talk about inside political stuff is not who I am, and that’s kind of what you do when you’re at these national conventions.”