Jeb Bush, "outsider," returns to the Washington fundraising well

Although not yet an official presidential candidate, Mr. Bush has had at least seven private fund-raisers and meet-and-greets in the Washington area, raising more than $1.3 million for his political action committee in a single day last month, and he has scheduled another one in April. His success is hardly surprising: For more than two decades, Washington has provided Mr. Bush, the son and brother of former presidents, with financial and political support.

“Washington is a deep well for Jeb. There’s a lot of support for him here,” said Tony Fratto, a Washington consultant who worked at the White House under George W. Bush, Mr. Bush’s brother, and pitched in $5,000 for a Bush fund-raiser last month.

In his two successful runs for the Florida statehouse, in 1998 and 2002, Mr. Bush received at least $237,000 from hundreds of lobbyists, lawyers, political consultants and others in the capital, records show. Many donors had ties to his father and his brother or to special interests like tobacco, oil, Hollywood and Wall Street.