Florida Senate women flex muscles [View all]

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Miami Herald

Posted on Sunday, 04.15.12
Florida Senate women flex muscles

A group of women in the Florida Senate joined together in the past session to kill a number of bills, including the expansion of private prisons and anti-abortion measure.

By Brittany Alana Davis
Herald/Times Tallahassee Bureau

TALLAHASSEE -- On the final day of the 2012 legislative session, Sen. Paula Dockery worked the Senate chamber, counting “no” votes on a bill to turn failing public schools into private charter schools.

She and fellow senators — mostly women — had rallied against the controversial proposal for weeks.

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By Dockery’s count, the bill should go down on a tie vote (there are no tiebreakers in the Florida Senate). But she stood tense at the vote screen, biting a nail. The computer tallied the vote, and her hands swung over her head.

~snip~
The tie was another proud moment for Dockery, a Lakeland Republican, and her ragtag caucus of Senate floaters.
Together, they defeated a massive expansion of private prisons, blocked an omnibus antiabortion bill from debate and prevented unregulated, out-of-state companies from taking over state-sponsored homeowners insurance.


Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/04/15/2747137/florida-senate-women-flex-muscles.html#storylink=cpy