Jeb Bush got reams of emails during his days as the governor of Florida. And he often didn’t hesitate to respond, even to the most rambling of constituents, even to the harshest of critics.

The Republican, who is mulling a 2016 run for the presidency, recently announced he would release some 250,000 emails from his days leading the Sunshine State. But public records laws have let interested parties get the material before Bush’s official release, and on Friday the pro-Democratic group American Bridge posted a slew of the documents online.


A spokesman for the liberal group said it had obtained the emails through a public records request to the Florida Department of State; he said they were everything that was available.

A preliminary review of the thousands of emails shows that Bush didn’t hesitate to defend his conservative principles, even to people who worried he wasn’t conservative enough. At times he would assume a formal, distant tone. At other times, he would be more relaxed. To one happy tourist, he wrote: “Please come again!”

Bush spokeswoman Kristy Campbell said the former governor’s emails, which he is using as a guide for an e-book he’s writing about his tenure, “provide a window into his record of strong leadership in Florida and his commitment to making government more effective and more responsive to citizens.”

Here are some intriguing exchanges from the files, which cover Bush’s two terms in office, from 1999 to 2007:

The Iraq War:

Many people who wrote to Bush often linked him to the actions of his brother, George W. Bush, who was president during most of his tenure. In particular, the decision to invade Iraq drew some harsh criticisms.

“This war will make George W go down as the worst president in history and you will suffer for that too,” one emailer wrote on March 17, 2003, just ahead of the invasion.

Jeb Bush was quick to defend his brother.

“I respectfully disagree with you. I think our President is right on track,” he wrote. “His speech tonight made our position clear and I am gratified that 60% of the American public agrees. I truly respect your point of view but don’t believe that we are on the wrong track.”

About 10 days later, a constituent urged the governor to appear at an event in support of Florida’s Muslims. He said he would consider it and added, “Almost a day does not go by when I am asking for tolerance and understanding for our Muslim citizens. ”

Immigration:

In recent years, Bush has become a major advocate for comprehensive immigration reform, a position that could hurt him in the 2016 primaries. But his emails show him to be more circumspect as governor.

Responding to emails from Florida residents on immigration-related matters in 2000, Bush and his staff often directed people to the state’s U.S. senators, noting, “immigration, naturalization, and temporary visitation permission decisions are handled at the federal level.”

Late in his tenure, while editing an op-ed his office planned to submit to The New York Times, Bush laid out his views on the issue. He asked that the column hit on various themes including the importance of border security, but also the need for a guest worker program. “Our ability as a country to historically absorb immigrants has kept us the most dynamic country in the world,” he wrote in the April 2006 email.

Bush also requested that the op-ed not mention his wife, Columba, who is of Mexican descent. Bush supporters have often pointed to his wife’s dislike of the spotlight as one of the main reasons he might not ultimately run for president.

Abortion:

In an email to a worried “fellow Republican” who asked him in August 2000 if it was true that he supported late-term abortions, which many opponents of the procedure call partial-birth abortion, Bush expounded on his conservative bona fides.

“I oppose the partial-birth abortion procedure,” he wrote. “This year, I will again support legislation that seeks to ban partial-birth abortions in Florida. It is important that the legislature establish a ban in law that will withstand any constitutional challenges. I am pro-life and believe we must create a consensus among all groups to reduce the number of abortions performed in the state of Florida.”

Terri Schiavo:

Bush’s most prominent confrontation over a social issue involved Terri Schiavo, a Pinellas Park woman who had been kept alive by a feeding tube and whose case became a searing national controversy. After years of litigation, a judge ordered the tube removed at the urging of Schiavo’s husband. Bush sided with her parents, who wanted to keep her alive. After his October 2003 executive order to have the tube re-inserted, Bush received tens of thousands of messages from around the United States, drawing praise and ire.

“I will continue to advocate a compassionate policy within the laws of our state,” Bush replied to a New Yorker’s Dec. 7 note of encouragement.

A few days before Christmas in 2003, Schiavo’s father, Robert Schindler, caught Bush’s attention with a heartfelt note of thanks.

“I am certain you were aware of the political ramifications before you acted this past October. Never the less, you came to Terri’s aid,” Schindler wrote, adding that he understood why the governor was too busy to meet with the family personally.

The governor responded, “thank you Bob. I hope you have a joyous Christmas. I will speak to our team about the invite.”

The emails show Bush’s team kept him up to date about Schiavo’s status — when she was moved to a new facility, for example, and sent him drafts of their legal case. Though the legislature passed the so-called “Terri’s law” to enable the governor’s intervention, a judge ruled Bush’s executive order unconstitutional in May 2004.

Though Bush rarely expressed much emotion about the case, he did respond to a constituent from St. Petersburg, who complained bitterly about a legal setback that Schiavo’s parents had faced in March 2004.

“It is frustrating to say the least,” Bush said.

Education:

Bush styled himself an “education governor,” and education remains an area of focus and a point of pride. His steadfast support for the Common Core education standards has landed him in hot water with the Republican base.

In Florida, Bush’s education efforts included dramatically expanded testing and creating a private-school voucher program for public schools deemed failing.

Children wrote to Bush, concerned about the emphasis on testing — one said it gave him stomach knots — but the governor defended his “A+ plan” for education, noting its benefits for all students, including minorities.

“Florida’s children are benefiting from the A+ Education Plan,” he wrote to one emailer. “The high school graduation rate is soaring. … The greatest gains were among Florida’s minority students, including a 3.1 percent jump among African Americans and a 2.9 percent rise among Hispanics.”

The death penalty:

Bush was not just in favor of the death penalty — he wanted to make the process more efficient.

In one email, he rattled off a slew of statistics to argue for speeding up capital punishment cases:

“Since 1994, criminals have murdered more than 5,600 people in our state,” he wrote in the August 2000 message. “During that same time, only 15 convicted murderers have been executed and delays keep increasing, not decreasing. Today, the victims’ families and the people of Florida are forced to wait an average of 14 years to see justice. I believe that justice delayed is justice denied, and our goal is to have capital cases resolved within five years.”

So not ‘This Town’:

Bush decided in early 2003 that he had no interest in the Mark Leibovich treatment, declining an interview request from the “This Town” author and rejecting the national spotlight.

“My interest is Florida, Florida, Florida,” Bush wrote to the journalist, then a reporter for The Washington Post. “I have learned that the national attention on me gets in the way.”

Leibovich insisted that the story would be more than simply a chronicle of Bush’s “e-mailing prowess.” He had hoped Bush would weigh in on swirling speculation about a 2008 presidential bid. But Bush still didn’t bite.

“Did you know that we are the first state to outsource the hr function of government? No profiles,” he wrote.

At one point, Bush’s downtrodden lottery director, Rebecca Mattingly, asked him for advice on handling “media beatings and unfair attacks for just doing your job.” “I know you’ve been at this political thing a lot longer than me and your skin is by far, thicker than mine,” she wrote in August 2002.

His reply: “my faith, my principles and my wartime attitude. Don’t let the bastards get you down!”

Jenny Hopkinson, Lucy McCalmont, Helena Bottemiller Evich, Victoria Guida, Nirvi Shah and Nahal Toosi contributed to this report.