At the end of last month, nationally prominent pundit Fred Barnes, one of the co-founders of the Weekly Standard and a familiar face on Fox News, spoke to the Federalist Society at Walt Disney World about how Republican state attorneys general have offered the most effective opposition to President Barack Obama.
Over the last five years,Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi has been in the vanguard of this resistance to Obama. Picking up from then-Attorney General Bill McCollums constitutional challenge of Obamas federal health-care law, Bondi led a coalition of states all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court where the law was upheld.
Leading the Republican Attorneys General Association, Bondi has become something of a national figure, going after Obama on myriad federal issues. But Bondi has also been active closer to home, successfully reducing pill mills in Florida and cracking down on human trafficking.
Bondis been pretty adamant that her job is to protect the Florida Constitution, even if she disagrees with how it is amended. That was evident last year when she looked to keep in place the constitutional amendment recognizing only traditional marriages within Florida. Bondi also opposed Amendment 2, a proposal to expand medical marijuana use in the Sunshine State, though she was clear that she would have done her duty and gone to bat for it had it passed.
While Bondi does not get as much attention as fellow Florida Cabinet Republicans CFO Jeff Atwater and Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam as a candidate for higher office, she has proven an able politician despite running for office for the first time in 2010. That year, Bondi beat Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp and former state Rep. Holly Benson in the primary and then-state Sen. Dan Gelber in the general election. Four years later, Bondi defeated former DCF Sec. George Sheldon.
Bondis passion shines through in her public appearances though it can often trip her up, leading to rushed speeches and covering too much ground. But her passion has also paid off, leading to results. Bondi is at her best when she puts a human face on families impacted by pill mills or women entangled in human trafficking.
While she has made some mistakes -- including her amateurish handling of what appeared to be a scuddled wedding scheduled in the Caymans instead of in Florida -- Bondi has proven an electoral winner. She has also been one of the most tenacious fighters in the nation against Obama, leading an increasingly active arm of both the GOP and the conservative movement. All of this has made Bondi one of the leading political personalities in Florida over the last five years.
(ABOUT THIS SERIES: Pam Bondi is the 11th in a special anniversary series of 20 political personalities who loomed large since early 2010, when Sunshine State News set up shop in Tallahassee.Who else made the list? Click here to find out.)
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or follow him on Twitter: @KevinDerbySSN
