Comments (0) Best Power Couple - 2005
Mary and Kevin McCarty
She's a long-time member of the Palm Beach County Board of Commissioners and a onetime chairwoman of the county's Republican Party. He's on the board of governors for the South Florida Water Management District and a bond underwriter for Bear Stearns & Co. in Boca Raton. Together, they oversee public budgets of more than $3 billion and lord over almost 11,000 employees. But their real power is acting as the eyes and ears of Gov. Jeb Bush in Palm Beach County, which is dominated by Democrats. Mary is among the staunchest supporters of Bush's plan to build Scripps' biotech research institute on Mecca Farms, environmental concerns be damned. As Bush's handpicked choice for the water district board, Kevin has worked in tandem with his wife as his agency approved the go-ahead for Scripps.
