At the time, Bush bashed Connerly. “He wants a war,” Bush told reporters. “I’m a lover. I can’t imagine doing what he’s talking about.”

The governor then dropped the issue publicly. He had made education reform a key issue of his 1998 campaign — school vouchers were huge — but affirmative action was nowhere on the radar screen.

But privately, he directed top aides to quickly create an alternative to affirmative action. If they could put one in place fast enough, they could render Connerly’s proposed referendum moot.

Bush was in perfect political position to do so. Republicans controlled the state House and Senate, and Democrats were deeply opposed to Connerly, too. This afforded him the opportunity to build bipartisan consensus on a volatile issue and unite the state against an outside activist.

That was not how Bush worked. He wanted to reshape the state in a hurry, and not just on affirmative action. He liked to talk about his “big, hairy audacious goals” on school vouchers, on the Everglades, on faith-based prisons. “Conservative Hurricane” is the title of one book that chronicles his administration.

“He wasn’t looking to tinker around the edges but to fundamentally change the way government worked,” said Cory Tilley, Bush’s former deputy chief of staff. “In this case, the governor was looking to avoid a very divisive fight for the state and declare a great new policy for minorities that worked in a modern, sensible way.”

Les Miller, leader of the Democrats in the state House and Senate when Bush was in office, said he and his party colleagues found him brusque and often inflexible. “It was his way or the highway,” Miller said. “I met with him [one-on-one] for about two minutes right after he was elected, and that was it.”

“With a Republican-controlled House and Senate, Democrats had no relevancy whatsoever,” Miller said, adding, “He was like, ‘I don’t have to talk to you guys.’ ”

Bush dubbed his proposal to end affirmative action “One Florida,” a call to unite the state. But, it was clear, he expected Florida to unite around him.