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Anitere Flores

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Anitere Flores
Member of the Florida Senate
from the 37th district
Incumbent
Assumed office
November 2010
Preceded byAlex Villalobos
Personal details
Born (1976-09-08) September 8, 1976 (age 48)
Miami, Florida, U.S.
Political partyRepublican
SpouseDustin Anderson
Alma materFlorida International University
University of Florida

Anitere Flores (born September 8, 1976 in Miami, Florida) is a Republican member of the Florida Senate, a body in which she represents the 37th District. Her district of almost 500,000 residents includes Kendall, Westchester, Fontainebleau, and portions of Southwest Miami-Dade County in South Florida. Senator Anitere Flores was sworn in as the State Senator on November 16, 2010. She is the first Republican Hispanic woman to serve in both the Florida House and Senate since 1986.[1]

Education

Flores graduated from Florida International University in 1997 with a B.A. in Political Science and International Relations. She later received her Juris Doctorate in 2001 from the University of Florida College of Law.

Political career

After law school, Senator Flores was hired by the Florida House of Representatives to work on the Education Council, and later worked for Governor Jeb Bush as his Education Policy Chief. Then in 2004, Flores decided to run for the Florida House of Representatives, District 114.

Florida House of Representatives

Flores during her time in the House of Representatives

Anitere Flores served in the Florida House of Representatives from 2004 to 2010.

Flores was first elected to the Florida House of Representatives to represent District 114, after defeating Carlos A. Manrique in the Republican Primary (55.5% to 18.6%) and Democrat Millie Herrera (64.4% to 35.6%) in the General Election on November 2, 2004.[2]

Flores was then subsequently re-elected with no opposition in 2006 and 2008.

During her career in the Florida House, she served as Deputy Majority Leader for the 2008-2010 term.[3] Also, as State Representative, she served as the Chair of the PreK-12 Appropriations Committee and the PreK-12 Policy Committee.

Florida Senate

In 2010, Flores decided to run for the District 38, State Senate seat that was being vacated by Senator J. Alex Villalobos due to term limits. She went on to defeat David Nelson (nearly 81% to 19%) in the Republican primary[4] and later Democrat, Les Gerson (68.2% to 31.8%) in the General Election on November 2, 2010.[5]

As a member of the Florida Senate, Senator Flores was named Majority Whip[6] while also serving as the Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee. In addition, Senator Flores sits on the Budget Committee, Budget Subcommittee on Education PreK-12 Appropriations, Commerce and Tourism Committee, Communications, Energy, and Public Utilities Committee, Governmental Oversight and Accountability Committee, Reapportionment Committee, and Rules Committee.

Controversy

In 2011, Senator Anitere Flores worked with her colleagues to introduce an Arizona-style immigration law. Supporters said the law would have focused on ensuring that Florida has a legal workforce and working with the federal government to repatriate undocumented immigrants who have been convicted of crimes and are in prison. These 5,500 individuals cost the state of Florida over $100 million each year to incarcerate.[7] On April 4, 2011, Flores voted "Yes" on Senate Bill 2040 (Florida's immigration bill) in the Senate Judiciary Committee, which passed with a majority vote with the exception of Senators Arthenia Joyner and Oscar Braynon who voted "No".[8] Many community members in attendance at the hearing were opposed to the bill [9] This vote followed 8 hours of debate in previous committee meetings dedicated to the immigration issue.[10] Opponents said her bill would have turned all local law enforcement into immigration agents. The local police would have been able to ask anyone for papers regardless of their status. However, the bill did not become law. [11] Incidentally, her district has a high number of Hispanic voters (71.5%).[12]

In addition to being a state senator, Anitere Flores also served as Doral College’s president.[13] In 2015, Miami-Dade Public Schools Chief Auditor Jose Montes de Oca questioned charter school spending for Doral College’s dual enrollment program. Doral College is a non-accredited college. Flores was hired as president of Doral on April 15, 2011 while she was championing a successful bill to create online virtual charter schools.[14] Doral College is a joint venture between Doral Academy Preparatory School—a charter high school in the South Florida area—and Academica, a for-profit education company.[15] Since Flores' law on online virtual charter schools went into effect, Academica has launched a virtual education division that includes 19 of its charter schools. Because of this controversy, Anitere Flores was labelled the Queen of Corruption by the national liberal advocacy group Occupy Democrats in a web video viewed over 300,000 times and shared virally.[16]

Personal life

Prior to being elected a State Representative, she spent two years advocating for university students in her district as Director of State Relations for Florida International University. She continues working for Florida International University to promote the university’s civic and community partnerships, by serving as the Director of Community Partnerships.

Community and Civic Participation

  • National Assessment Governing Board (a bipartisan board that sets policy for the National Assessment of Educational Progress-NAEP), Board Member
  • Spectrum Programs, Inc. (a drug and mental health service organization), Board Member
  • All Children Together (an organization to help disabled children), Member
  • Fun 4 Kidz Sprint to Success Advisory Committee (an organization that provides academic support for at risk students), Member
  • Community Advisory Board of the Honors College at Florida International University, Member
  • The Florida Bar, Member
  • Cuban-American Bar Association, Member
  • National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials-Educational Fund, Board Member

Family

Senator Flores is married to Dustin Anderson of Sarasota, Florida and has now two sons Máximo Monte Anderson and Lucas Ignacio Anderson.

References

  1. ^ http://honors.fiu.edu/alumni/spotlightaf.htm
  2. ^ http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=68888
  3. ^ http://www.50thnomore.org/file.axd?file=2010%2F3%2F2010+House+Leadership.pdf
  4. ^ http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=511118
  5. ^ http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=538640
  6. ^ http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/the-buzz-florida-politics/content/haridopolos-adds-senate-team-david-simmons-anitere-flores-evelyn-lynn
  7. ^ http://www.dc.state.fl.us/pub/annual/0910/stats/ip_alien.html
  8. ^ http://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2011/2040/CommitteeVotes/Mz6aEvrbkWgvNTcpOgVbhl6xm0s=%7C7/Public/Committees/Judiciary/Meetings/2011-04-04%200315PM/S2040%20Vote%20Record.PDF
  9. ^ http://www.flsenate.gov/PublishedContent/Committees/2010-2012/JU/MeetingRecords/JU_04042011_0315.mp3
  10. ^ http://www.flsenate.gov/Media/PressRelease/Show/Offices/Majority/PressRelease/PressRelease2011012811171869
  11. ^ "Hundreds begin protests against Florida immigration bills". CNN. Retrieved 2016-01-31.
  12. ^ http://www.flsenate.gov/UserContent/Senators/Districts/SD_Stat/SD38stats.pdf
  13. ^ http://www.doralcollege.com/about-us/publications-and-procedures/history-of-the-college/
  14. ^ "Connections, conflicts and $600K in deal criticized by Miami-Dade schools auditor". Florida Bulldog. 2015-06-11.
  15. ^ "Charter schools break new ground with Doral College". Miami Herald. 2014-03-15.
  16. ^ "National liberal group targets Anitere Flores as 'queen of corruption' in Florida". Miami Herald. 2016-03-23.
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