Nonprofits have become a new vehicle for corporations and lobbyists to influence politicians and for politicians to skirt transparency in the election system. Florida Governor Jeb Bush (R) is revving up his nonprofit to do both:(Read More…)

Gov. Jeb Bush has used his recently revived nonprofit foundation to pay a former campaign finance director and two former campaign aides.

Although Bush has said his Foundation for Florida’s Future is not a way of keeping his political machine intact after he leaves office early next year, recent disclosures on the foundation’s Web site show that it paid:

•Nearly $99,000 to Ann Herberger, Bush’s campaign finance director during two campaign and a longtime political fund-raiser for his family.

•Nearly $70,000 to Neil Newhouse of Washington-based GOP Public Opinion Strategies group for polling last October.

•$48,000 for “management services” to a lobbying and public-affairs firm whose staff includes Mandy Clark and Mandy Fletcher. Both worked on Bush’s reelection campaign and on his brother’s presidential reelection campaign.

•$23,500 for “legal services” from the Washington law and lobbying firm Patton Boggs.

•$20,000 in February to GOP political strategist Adam Goodman’s The Victory Group Inc.

The foundation has spent about $320,000 of the $1.9 million it has raised since Bush revived it in the fall, according to its Web site. Those contributions have come from friends, former colleagues and campaign contributors, and even the prime minister of Haiti.

Bush also has tapped three “Rangers” — fund-raisers who brought in at least $200,000 for President Bush’s 2004 campaign — to sit on the foundation’s board: Zach Zachariah, a Fort Lauderdale cardiologist; Tom Petway, a Jacksonville businessman; and Sergio Pino, a Miami developer.