George P. Bush, left, talks to guests prior to making the opening statements at the Texas Business Leadership Council, Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2013, in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
What Hyannis Port is to the Kennedys, Greenwich is to the Bushes.
And now the fourth-generation flag-bearer for one of the nation’s most powerful political families is about to make his debut in the fertile stomping grounds of his grandfather and great-grandfather.
George P. Bush, who this week filed paperwork to run for land commissioner in his home state of Texas, often used as a steppingstone for higher office, has chosen Greenwich for one of his first major fundraisers, Hearst Connecticut Newspapers has learned.
For $1,000 per person, you can get a roundtable audience April 11 with the eldest son of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush at the Dairy Road home of Chris and Carina Crain. There’s also a $250 per person general reception option afterward.
If the Crain name sounds familiar, that’s because it is: he is a vice president and group publisher at his family’s Crain Communications, which puts out Crain’s New York Business and a host of other publications.
The P. in George P. Bush stands for Prescott, the first name of Bush family patriarch and the candidate’s great-grandfather, Prescott Bush, the late U.S. senator from Connecticut.
The land commissioner hopeful is also the grandson of former President George H.W. Bush, who grew up on Grove Lane a mere four miles from where the fundraiser is being held.
An attorney and real state investor, the family’s next great hope for political office is a member of the U.S. Navy reserve and was deployed to Afghanistan. His mother was born in Mexico and is a naturalized U.S. citizen, a narrative that Republicans believe will play well among the growing Latino electorate.
The host committee of the fundraiser reads likes a Who’s Who of fundraisers for former President George W. Bush.
There’s Tom Foley, the former U.S. ambassador to Ireland under Bush 43 and two-time candidate for governor.
There’s also state Sen. L. Scott Frantz, R-36th District, a prolific bundler for the GOP who has hosted Bush 43 at his home several times.
And keeping it all in the family, the hosts include Craig and Debbie Walker Stapleton, Bush cousins. He served as ambassador to the Czech Republic and then France under George W. Bush, with whom he was a partner in the ownership group of the Texas Rangers baseball team in the early 1990s.