In 2005, then-Florida Gov. Jeb Bush took $1.3 million out of his state’s pension fund to invest in Movie Gallery, a now-defunct video-rental company known for its wide selection of pornographic films. Political observers predict that the investment might come back to haunt Bush now that he’s seeking the Republican nomination for the 2016 presidential election, the New York Daily News reports.
Bush’s use of funds to purchase stocks in Movie Gallery is not the issue, since the governor sat on the board that oversees the state’s pension fund and was allowed to invest in such publicly traded companies, the Daily News explains. But the fact that the investment didn’t end up being a profitable one (the company closed up shop in 2010), coupled with the fact that one of the company’s best-known features was its extensive pornography offering, was not exactly in line with the socially conservative values the Republican Party touts.
Republicans in Florida took issue with it back when Bush was in office, and now that he’s being thrown out onto the national stage, political observers wonder how much damage this might do to Bush’s presidential campaign.
The International Business Times described the fallout back in 2005 between Bush and some of Florida’s Republican advocacy groups that were appalled that Bush would invest in such a business—going against his morals, they argued—just to try to make a quick buck.
Read more at the New York Daily News and the International Business Times.