Jeb Bush to headline Clark County GOP Lincoln Day event

Likely GOP presidential candidate Jeb Bush will return to Las Vegas May 13 to headline the Clark County Republican Party’s Lincoln Day dinner as the 2016 White House race begins to heat up in Nevada and nationwide.

The “surprise” announcement came Thursday in an email Nevada’s largest GOP organization sent to its members.

“Save the date for this upcoming gala event!” the email said after promising a surprise announcement. “Location and pricing to be announced shortly.”

The annual dinner can be a lucrative fundraising event for the county party that includes vote-rich Las Vegas. All of Nevada’s 17 counties hold Lincoln Day lunches or dinners, which are must-attend venues for candidates and state and local politicians.

Later this month, on March 28, another potential GOP presidential candidate, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, also plans to break bread with party regulars. Huckabee is scheduled to speak in Carson City at a dinner following the Nevada Republican Party’s spring meeting.

In late April, several likely White House hopefuls will gather in Las Vegas to address the annual Republican Jewish Coalition meeting at The Venetian, owned by Las Vegas Sands CEO Sheldon Adelson. The meeting has become known as the “Sheldon Adelson primary” as the generous GOP donor meets with candidates to decide whose campaign to support financially. In 2012, he donated more than $100 million to GOP candidates and causes.

The Jewish Coalition’s speakers lineup includes U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence and Texas Gov. Rick Perry, all of whom are considering presidential runs. By then the GOP race might be officially underway and other candidates could be added to the April 23-25 meeting’s agenda.

“Jeb will be great,” said Nick Phillips, political director of the Clark County Republican Party. “And the rest of the presidential candidates will be showing up here really soon.”

Bush, a former Florida governor who is close to Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval, most recently visited Las Vegas on March 2.

During that stop, Bush sought to burnish his conservative credentials ahead of his expected White House bid by holding up his record in Florida over two terms, 1999-2007.

“We cut taxes every year, totaling $19 billion,” he said, speaking to about 400 people at a Sun City Summerlin senior center. “Every year there was a tax cut or more than one, we reduced the state’s work force in government by about 13,000 or 15,000 and we increased the number of jobs — not me, but the private sector did — by 1.4 million net new jobs during those eight years.”

Bush also sought to distance himself from his family, saying he is not his brother nor his father, former Presidents George W. Bush and George H. W. Bush.

“A lot of people know my dad, they know my brother,” he said. “As in everybody’s family, we’re all a little different. I have my own life experience, so I want to share that with you.”

Bush said he has business experience in banking and real estate and “I’ve had the chance to sign the front side of a paycheck.” Bush has not formally announced he’s running for president.

Although the presidential campaign hasn’t officially begun, voters already are carefully monitoring the various hopefuls’ statements for deal-breakers. Bush, for example, this Tuesday in Greenville, S.C., declined to take a position on whether Yucca Mountain in Nevada should be used as the nation’s nuclear dumping ground. Most Nevada leaders have long fought the nuclear waste site designation and the vast majority of voters here have long opposed such a plan.

Asked about the issue by The Greenville News, Bush said he’d have to study it before deciding whether he’d favor opening the repository or not. South Carolina’s nuclear power generators produce such waste and the state’s electricity consumers have paid nearly $1.47 billion into a fund to pay for the repository in Nevada.

“I think we need to find a solution so that South Carolinians don’t pay and pay and pay without a long-term solution,” said Bush. “I’d have to look at what the other options are and the alternatives are, to be honest with you.”

Bush is among several potential White House hopefuls who have recently visited Nevada, which is one of four party-sanctioned early-voting states along with Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.

U.S. Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida and Rand Paul of Kentucky have both made political pit stops in Nevada this year. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the likely Democratic presidential early front-runner, has been a frequent visitor here as well.

Paul is expected to formally announce his candidacy on April 7 in Kentucky, according to MSNBC, citing people in his campaign. Paul then plans a campaign swing through the early voting states, including Nevada, according to the report.

Contact Laura Myers at lmyers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2919. Find her on Twitter: @lmyerslvrj.