Toni Jennings
{{short description|American politician}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| image = Toni Jennings2.jpg
| name = Toni Jennings
| order1 = 16th
| office1 = Lieutenant Governor of Florida
| term_start1 = March 3, 2003
| term_end1 = January 2, 2007
| governor1 = Jeb Bush
| predecessor1 = Frank Brogan
| successor1 = Jeff Kottkamp
| office2 = President of the Florida Senate
| term_start2 = November 19, 1996
| term_end2 = November 21, 2000
| predecessor2 = James A. Scott
| successor2 = John M. McKay
| state3 = Florida
| state_senate3 = Florida
| term_start3 = November 18, 1980
| term_end3 = November 21, 2000
| predecessor3 = Bill Gorman
| successor3 = D. Lee Constantine
| state5 = Florida
| state_house5 = Florida
| district5 = 42nd
| term_start5 = 1976
| term_end5 = 1980
| predecessor5 = William D. Gorman{{cite web|url=http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/fefdl/florida/House19672001.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180113095046/http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/fefdl/florida/House19672001.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=13 January 2018|title=House of Representatives|date=13 January 2018}}
| successor5 = Thomas B. Drage Jr.
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1949|5|17}}
| birth_place = Orlando, Florida, U.S.
| death_date =
| party = Republican
| profession = Teacher, politician
| constituency3 = 15th (1980–1992)
9th (1992–2000)
}}
Antoinette Jennings (born May 17, 1949) is an American politician who was the 16th lieutenant governor of Florida.
Life and career
She was nominated to the office by Governor Jeb Bush in February 2003 to replace Frank Brogan, who resigned to become president of Florida Atlantic University. She was sworn in on March 3, 2003, becoming the first woman to hold the office.{{cite web |url=http://www.theworldofstuff.com/other/jennings.html |title=Frank Brogan and Toni Jennings |accessdate=2008-08-06 |work=The World of Stuff |author=Jordon Kalilich |date=2008-08-06 }} She declined to run for governor in 2006 even though she was reputed to be Bush's preferred choice as his successor.
After the 2006 elections, Jennings was replaced as lieutenant governor by Jeff Kottkamp, on January 2, 2007.
Jennings previously served in the Florida House of Representatives from 1976 to 1980, and in the Florida Senate, from 1980 to 2000. In 1994, when Orange County chairman Linda Chapin announced she was not seeking re-election, she failed to convince Jennings to return to Orlando and campaign for the office herself. Instead, she remained in Tallahassee to be elected by her Senate peers to be president of the Florida senate—the only person to have held that office for two terms, from 1996 to 2000. In 2000, legislative term limits came into effect, having been instituted by a constitutional referendum taken several years earlier. Jennings was thereafter prohibited from seeking reelection.
Before entering public service, Jennings was an elementary school teacher. During and after her tenure in the legislature, she also ran the family construction business. She is a graduate of Wesleyan College.
As lieutenant governor, she worked on legislative relations for Bush, on education policy, hurricane preparedness, disaster relief and issues related to the Space Coast in Florida.
She joined FPL's board of directors a month after leaving office in 2007.
Jennings endorsed former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney in the 2008 presidential primary election.
See also
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20070913104526/http://www.fcsw.net/halloffame/WHOFbios/jennings.htm Biography at the Florida Women's Hall of Fame]
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{{succession box|title=Member of the Florida Senate
from the 15th district|before=William D. Gorman|after=Patsy Ann Kurth|years=1980–1992}}
{{succession box|title=Member of the Florida Senate
from the 9th district|before=William G. Bankhead|after=D. Lee Constantine|years=1992–2000}}
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{{succession box|title= Lieutenant Governor of Florida|before=Frank Brogan|after=Jeff Kottkamp|years=2003-2007 }}
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{{FloridaLtGovernors}}
{{Florida Women's Hall of Fame}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jennings, Toni}}
Category:Lieutenant governors of Florida
Category:Presidents of the Florida Senate
Category:Republican Party Florida state senators
Category:Republican Party members of the Florida House of Representatives
Category:Politicians from Orlando, Florida
Category:Wesleyan College alumni
Category:Women in Florida politics
Category:21st-century American women