Paula Dockery

Paula Dockery (born June 6, 1961) is an independent politician from the U.S. state of Florida. She served as a member of the Florida Senate for ten years, representing parts of Central Florida from 2002 to 2012 as a Republican. Previously, she served three terms in the Florida House of Representatives, representing a Lakeland-based district from 1996 until her election to the Senate. In January 2017, she left the Republican Party and became a Democrat. Early life Dockery was born Paula Louise Bono in Queens, New York, on June 6, 1961. Her family moved to Florida in 1968, and she graduated from Coral Springs High School in 1979. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from the University of Florida in 1983. While at UF, she was a member of Student Senate, served on the O'Connell Center Board of Managers, Chaired the Affairs & Ethics Committee, and was a graduate teaching assistant.

State legislature Dockery was elected to the Florida House of Representatives in 1996, and served three terms. She served as majority whip from 1998 through 2000, and was the primary sponsor of the popular Florida Forever Act. She was term limited in 2012 and could not run for re-election.

2010 gubernatorial campaign

On June 1, 2009, there was a draft campaign to see Senator Dockery run for Governor of Florida. On November 4, 2009, Dockery entered the race for Florida governor, challenging Florida's Attorney General Bill McCollum for the Republican Nomination. Dockery dropped out of the race when it became clear that she would be unable to run a competitive campaign against Rick Scott, who spent nearly $50 million of his own money to secure a bitterly fought Republican primary victory.

After Scott's primary win, Dockery's name was floated as a potential running mate for Scott. On 30 August 2010, Dockery announced that she would not run for lieutenant governor at Scott's side.

Chronicle Term limits prohibited Dockery from running for senate re-election in 2012, so when she was asked to write a column for the political discourse website Florida Voices to share her insights of Florida politics during her last year as a senator, she agreed.

Honors and awards