Michelle Rehwinkel Vasilinda (born July 9, 1960) is an American politician and lawyer from

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

. She is a former member of the

Florida House of Representatives The Florida House of Representatives is the lower house of the Florida Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Florida, the Florida Senate being the upper house. Article III, Section 1 of the Constitution of Florida, adopted ...

, in which she represented the 9th District, which includes most of Leon County, from 2008 to 2016. In addition to her legislative career, Rehwinkel Vasilinda is an attorney and has been a professor of Legal Studies and Applied Ethics at

Tallahassee Community College Tallahassee Community College (TCC) is a public community college in Tallahassee, Florida. It is part of the Florida College System and is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. As of fall 2017, TCC reported 24,639 stu ...

since 1989.

Early life, education, and personal life

Rehwinkel Vasilinda was born in

Rochester, New York Rochester () is a City (New York), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, the county seat, seat of Monroe County, New York, Monroe County, and the fourth-most populous in the state after New York City, Buffalo, New York, Buffalo, ...

and moved to

in 1977 to attend New College, where she studied from 1977 to 1982, before graduating from the

University of South Florida The University of South Florida (USF) is a public research university with its main campus located in Tampa, Florida, and other campuses in St. Petersburg and Sarasota. It is one of 12 members of the State University System of Florida. USF is ...

in 1982 with a degree in social and behavioral studies. Following this, she attended the

University of Florida College of Law The University of Florida Fredric G. Levin College of Law (UF Law) is the law school of the University of Florida located in Gainesville, Florida. Founded in 1909, it is the oldest operating public law school in Florida, and second oldest overall ...

, graduating with her

Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice law ...

in 1985, and has been a member of the Florida Bar since 1986. As a member of

The Florida Bar The Florida Bar is the integrated bar association for the state of Florida. It is the third largest such bar in the United States. Its duties include the regulation and discipline of attorneys. The Florida Bar is also responsible for the governi ...

, she was appointed to the Vision 2016 Commission. She is the mother of two adult daughters and three adult stepsons and is married to Mike Vasilinda.

Other activities

From 1986 to 1989 she was an assistant general counsel at the

Florida Department of Environmental Regulation The Florida Department of Environmental Regulation (DER) was the agency which, from the mid-1970s to the mid-1990s, handled regulation, management, conservation, compliance and enforcement of a wide range of environmental and natural resource activ ...

.LinkedIn Profile
/ref> From 1998 to 2008 she was a consultant to Mike Vasilinda Productions.

Political campaigns

In 2008, Rehwinkel Vasilinda was elected to represent the 9th District, which included parts of

Gadsden County Gadsden County is a county located in the panhandle of the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 census, the population was 43,826. Its county seat is Quincy. Gadsden County is included in the Tallahassee, FL Metropolitan Statistical Area. Ga ...

, Jefferson County, and Leon County. She won the Democratic primary unopposed, and faced

Peter Boulware Peter Nicholas Boulware (born December 18, 1974) is an American former professional football player who was a linebacker in the National Football League (NFL) for nine seasons. He played college football for Florida State University, and was re ...

, the

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

nominee and a former football player for the

Florida State Seminoles The Florida State Seminoles are the athletic teams representing Florida State University located in Tallahassee, Florida. They compete as a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level (Football Bowl Subdivis ...

and the

Baltimore Ravens The Baltimore Ravens are a professional American football team based in Baltimore, Maryland. The Ravens compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) North division. The team plays its ...

. Despite the district's Democratic lean, Boulware was competitive with Rehwinkel Vasilinda, and managed to significantly outraise her. In the end, she emerged narrowly victorious, winning by 430 votes and with 49% of the vote. She was challenged in the Democratic primary in 2010 by Rick Minor, the former Chairman of the Leon County Democratic Party. Minor attacked her for voting in favor of offshore oil drilling, a vote that she contended was part of "a much larger energy package," declaring that she "never promoted, supported or defended offshore drilling." She was also attacked for being "a liability," as in 2008, she "barely won in a district that Barack Obama took by 24 points." Despite these spirited attacks, however, Rehwinkel Vasilinda easily defeated Minor, winning 69% of the vote. In the general election, she faced Kirk Headley-Purdue, who did not present much of a challenge to her, and she comfortably won with 59% of the vote. When districts were redrawn in 2012, Rehwinkel Vasilinda remained in the 9th District, which became solely located in Leon County. She faced Bradley L. Maxwell, the

nominee who had previously run against former State Representative Curtis Richardson in 2000, as her general election opponent. The ''

Tallahassee Democrat The ''Tallahassee Democrat'' is a daily broadsheet newspaper. It covers the area centered on Tallahassee in Leon County, Florida, as well as adjacent Gadsden County, Jefferson County, and Wakulla County. The newspaper is owned by Gannett Co., ...

'' endorsed her for re-election, citing her efforts to protect government jobs in the district, specifically praising her for fighting "to save the jobs of workers at the Jefferson Correctional Institution, which was slated for closure." In the end, she was re-elected overwhelmingly, winning 62% of the vote. In 2014, when Rehwinkel Vasilinda ran for her fourth and final term in the legislature, she was opposed by Arnitta Grice-Walker in the Democratic primary. Due to the fact that no other candidates filed, the primary was opened to all voters. During the campaign, Grice-Walker declined to criticize Rehwinkel Vasilinda's service in the legislature, instead running on her plans to reform the state's public employee pension plan and to raise the minimum wage. Rehwinkel Vasilinda campaigned on her support for alternative energy and her opposition to the death penalty, noting, "We're not doing what we should be doing in regard to renewable energy. We are at a point where it shouldn't be alternative, it should be ''pro forma''." In the end, Rehwinkel Vasilinda defeated Grice-Walker in a landslide, winning 82% of the vote. In September 2016, with less than two months until the end of her final House term, Rehwinkel Vasilinda changed her party registration from Democratic to No Party Affiliation. The change made her the only Florida legislator not registered with either major party. In February 2017, she officially registered with the Republican Party. In 2019, she donated 17 times to Donald J Trump for President Inc.

Florida House of Representatives

Rehwinkel Vasilinda served on the Judiciary, Education, Energy and Utilities, and Highway and Waterway Safety Committees, and was the Ranking Democratic Member on the Higher Education and Workforce committee in the 2015 session. In past years she served on the following committees: Finance and Tax, Rules and Calendar, Choice and Innovation Education K-20, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy, Agriculture and Natural Resources Appropriations, Economic Development Policy, Health and Family Services Policy Council, Health Care Regulation Policy, and Select Committee on Government Reorganization. While serving in the

, Rehwinkel Vasilinda convened th
Big Bend Anti-Bullying Task Force
in 2010 and a statewide Anti-Bullying Roundtable in 2013. She also hosted and convened th
Clean Energy Congress
in 2010 and 2013. Rehwinkel Vasilinda was an initiator and co-chair with Senator

Nancy Detert Nancy C. Detert (born October 22, 1944) is an American Republican politician from the U.S. state of Florida who has served as a Sarasota County Commissioner since 2016. Previously, she represented parts of Sarasota and Charlotte Counties in the F ...

of the Florida Film, Entertainment and Television Caucus, responsible for the passage of $220,000,000 in television and film credits to bring and keep jobs in the state of

. In 2009, she served as a member of the Agriculture and Energy Committee at the National Conference of State Legislatures in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

, at the request of the

Speaker of the House The speaker of a deliberative assembly, especially a legislative body, is its presiding officer, or the chair. The title was first used in 1377 in England. Usage The title was first recorded in 1377 to describe the role of Thomas de Hungerf ...

. Throughout her career in the Florida House, Rehwinkel Vasilinda's primary focus in her legislative endeavors was in regard to the areas of

renewable energy Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources that are naturally replenished on a human timescale. It includes sources such as sunlight, wind, the movement of water, and geothermal heat. Although most renewable energy ...

, film and entertainment, tourism,

tax reform Tax reform is the process of changing the way taxes are collected or managed by the government and is usually undertaken to improve tax administration or to provide economic or social benefits. Tax reform can include reducing the level of taxatio ...

, ethics, education, economic development and

environmental A biophysical environment is a biotic and abiotic surrounding of an organism or population, and consequently includes the factors that have an influence in their survival, development, and evolution. A biophysical environment can vary in scale f ...

and

agricultural Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating Plant, plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of Sedentism, sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of Domestication, domesticated species created food ...

issues.

References

External links

*
Florida House of Representatives - Michelle Rehwinkel Vasilinda
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rehwinkel Vasilinda, Michelle 1960 births Living people Politicians from Rochester, New York New College of Florida alumni University of South Florida alumni Fredric G. Levin College of Law alumni Florida Democrats Florida Independents Florida lawyers Florida Republicans Women state legislators in Florida Members of the Florida House of Representatives 20th-century American lawyers 21st-century American politicians 21st-century American women politicians Lawyers from Rochester, New York 20th-century American women lawyers