Columba Bush's lavish spending habits scrutinized
Wife of Jeb Bush joins a long list of political spouses with a taste for extravagance
The history of U.S. political spouses whose lavish spending habits have attracted public attention is about as old as the country itself.
First lady Mary Todd Lincoln was known as a compulsive shopper roundly criticized for her indiscriminate spending and shopping binges during the Civil War. Nancy Reagan’s expensive tastes and designer dresses earned her the derogatory nickname "Queen Nancy." Calista Gingrich owed as much as $500,000 to Tiffany’s, according to financial disclosures made during Newt Gingrich’s 2012 presidential run. First lady Michelle Obama’s taste for fashion — she once wore $540 sneakers to a food bank — is well-documented.
Add Columba Bush to that list.
The lavish spending habits of wife of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush are the subject of an extensive piece published by the Washington Post on Monday, which details her expensive — and, on one occasion, problematic — tastes.
Between 1995 and 2009, Columba Bush financed at least five large purchases from Mayors Jewelers in Sunrise, Fla.
In 1997, she paid $31,000 for two pieces of jewelry ($15,000 for a Roman coin necklace and $16,600 for a diamond-studded Rolex) — both financed through the jeweler.
In 2000, she took out a loan "to buy $42,311.70 worth of jewelry on a single day," according to records filed with the state of Florida and obtained by the paper:
Uniform Commercial Code forms filed by the store with the Florida secretary of state’s office on May 3, 2000, indicate that Mayors arranged a loan under which Columba Bush bought four items. They were: a $25,600 pair of diamond stud earrings set in platinum; an 18-karat white-gold and diamond bracelet by the Italian designer Bulgari, priced at $10,500; an 18-karat white-gold and diamond necklace, costing $3,200; and another pair of diamond earrings, for $3,300. The records indicate that she received discounts and price adjustments totalling $2,780 and paid $2,491.70 in sales tax.
The year before, she was detained at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport after misleading federal customs officials about the amount of clothing and jewelry she had bought while on a solo five-day shopping spree in Paris." According to the then-governor, Columba said she did so because she didn't not want him to know how much money she had spent on the trip: about $19,000. She was fined $4,100 for the episode.
“It is a lot of money," Jeb Bush said at the time. "But look, that’s between her and me.”
As recently as 2009, Columba took out a loan for $17,600 for a Rolex Submariner watch ($11,700) and a $5,900 pair of earrings.
According to the Post, Columba is press-averse and "famously private." But with Jeb Bush considering a presidential run in 2016, her history of lavish purchases — like some of her diamonds — is likely to be magnified, especially if her husband advances past the primary stage.
During the 2012 campaign, a $990 silk T-shirt worn by Mitt Romney’s wife, Ann, during an appearance on "CBS This Morning" quickly drew criticism.
”Ann Romney’s $990 T-shirt is indicative of a tone-deaf campaign," Suzi Parker wrote in the Washington Post.
