Family at the forefront as Jeb Bush campaigns in Northwest Iowa

SIOUX CENTER, Ia. – Jeb Bush’s family was front and center on the Iowa campaign trail on Friday.

The Republican presidential candidate appeared with son Jeb. Jr. and daughter Noelle at three northwest Iowa events on the first leg of a three-day campaign swing that will take Bush from the Missouri River to the Mississippi.

It’s Bush’s frenzied final push ahead of Iowa’s first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses on Monday night.

“This is a family deal,” Bush said as he introduced his children in Sioux City.

Jeb Jr. has campaigned with his father and on his own in Iowa, but his daughter is rarely seen on the trail. In Sioux Center on Friday evening, she briefly became the center of attention.

A man in the crowd lined up a question about Bush’s plan for addressing drug abuse by asking about her specifically, noting that he’d read on Wikipedia that she had experienced addiction.

“My daughter had an addiction problem, in fact my daughter is here with my son,” Bush said, pointing her out in the crowd. “There’s my daughter Noelle.”

He went on, “My precious daughter, I’ve not done this in front of her, so this’ll be a little harder than normal, but my daughter did go through problems. She was caught trying to get drugs that weren’t prescribed to her – Xanax – and she spiraled out of control. She did it in a very public way because I was governor of the state. But what I can tell you is my admiration and love for my daughter knows no bounds.”

Bush went on to outline his policies, calling for better addiction treatment options, stronger penalties for drug dealers and criminal justice reforms that de-emphasize criminal penalties for people with addictions.

Earlier in the day, Jeb Jr. called it was “surreal” to watch his dad campaign for the presidency.

“It’s just been a blitz,” Jeb Jr. said in an interview with The Des Moines Register. “I’m getting a little cross-eyed.”

Other members of Bush’s famous political family came up throughout the day as well. In Carroll, a man asked Jeb Bush how he was similar and how we differed from his father – former President George H.W. Bush – and his brother, former President George W. Bush.

“Well, I’m much better looking than my brother,” Bush responded, drawing chuckles.

“I’ve lived a very different life than my brother, and my life experiences are – I’m not saying they’re better or worse – they’re different,” he went on. “And we’re different because of that. He’s more disciplined, more focused. I’m probably more a little more cerebral.”

He praised his father as “near perfect and “the greatest man alive.”

“My dad’s life experience is so full, so big, so rich,” he said, adding, “I figured I could just be half (the man he is). It was as perfect decision on my part because that lower expectation allowed me to live my own life.”

Also on Friday, it just so happened, the Bush campaign began sending mailers to Iowa households featuring an endorsement from George W. Bush.

The glossy campaign literature features a photo of the older Bush brother in the Oval Office and a letter in which W. calls Jeb “a tested leader who has made difficult decisions during times of crisis” and plays up his national-security bona fides.

It’s being sent statewide to Iowans identified by the campaign as likely caucusgoers, a spokeswoman said.

Among those attending the Carroll event where Bush’s family was featured so prominently was Mary Neu, whose political experience encompasses Bush presidential candidacies dating back decades.

Neu is the widow of former Iowa Lt. Gov Art Neu, a moderate Republican whose political allies were instrumental in building George H.W. Bush’s first Iowa campaign in 1979. She fondly recalled meeting H.W. during one of his campaigns in Iowa, although she was less complimentary of George W. Bush.

Neu said she was considering caucusing for either Jeb Bush or Ohio Gov. John Kasich – a candidate who, like Bush, is seen as a relative moderate in the GOP field.

“I’m pretty sure it’s going to be Jeb,” she said.

AT THE EVENT

SETTING: A kitschy, Western-themed social club in Carroll; a conference-center ballroom in Sioux City; and the atrium of a building on the campus of Dordt College in Sioux Center.

CROWD: Bush attracted a couple hundred people at each event.

REACTION: Bush won plenty of cheers and applause along with thoughtful and generally friendly questions. Still, many in the crowd said they weren’t absolutely certain they’d support him on caucus night.

WHAT’S NEXT: This was the first day of a three-day tour that will take Bush across the width of the state. For details, go to DesMoinesRegister.com/candidatetracker.