Ginny Brown-Waite

Virginia Brown-Waite (born Virginia Frances Kniffen; October 5, 1943) is an American politician who served as U.S. Representative for Florida's 5th congressional district from 2003 until 2011.

She is a member of the Republican Party and a founder of Maggie's List.

The district stretched along several counties in western and central Florida, including territory in the metropolitan area of Tampa Bay.

Virginia Frances Kniffen was born in Albany, New York, on October 5, 1943.

She attended Albany’s Vincentian High School.

In 1976, she graduated from Empire State College, State University of New York (Northeast Center) with a BS in Interdisciplinary Studies.

She was the first member of her family to earn a college degree.

She later earned a master's degree in public administration from Russell Sage College.

She served as a staffer in the New York State Senate, working there for 17 years and eventually rising to the role of legislative director.

During this time, she divorced her first husband and married Harvey Waite, a New York state trooper.

After Harvey Waite’s retirement in the mid-1980s, they moved to Brooksville, Florida.

She first became involved in local politics in 1990, winning election as a county commissioner in Hernando County, Florida, serving one term from 1991 to 1993.

In November 1992, Brown-Waite defeated a 24-year incumbent and was elected to the Florida State Senate as a Republican.

She served three terms, moving up the ranks to serve as Senate Majority Whip from 1999 to 2000, and as president pro tempore of the state senate from 2001 to 2002.

Brown-Waite expressed support for the death penalty.

She says she believed she saw "a message" in a nosebleed suffered by death row inmate Allen Lee Davis during his execution on July 8, 1999.

Brown-Waite, who saw in the blood the shape of a cross, believes that it either indicated Davis had made peace with God, or it was a message from God giving his blessing to the execution.

Since entering Congress, Brown-Waite has garnered a lifetime rating of 90 from the American Conservative Union.

However, she broke with her party on a few occasions.

She criticized George W. Bush for fielding questions from hand-picked crowds.

"Let me tell you the difference between a GWB town-hall meeting – George W. Bush – and a GBW – Ginny Brown-Waite – town-hall meeting: I don't load the audience with just the choir," she once said.

She was one of five Republicans who voted against a bill to give Terri Schiavo's parents the right to sue in federal court to keep her alive (Schiavo's home was located in the 5th).

She is a member of Republican groups such as Christine Todd Whitman's It's My Party Too, Mike Castle's Republican Main Street Partnership, and The Wish List.

Brown-Waite's district has one of the highest concentrations of retirees in the country.

In early 2005, she referred to the current Social Security system as a "Ponzi scheme".

However, she was skeptical of the president's proposal for personal accounts, saying that he hadn't done a good job of selling it to seniors.

On April 6, 2005, Brown-Waite introduced the Jessica Lunsford Act, named for Jessica Lunsford, a nine-year-old from her district who was kidnapped, raped, and murdered in Homosassa, Florida, by John Couey.

The bill, modeled after the Florida law of the same name, had the objectives to punish sex offenders and reduce their ability to re-offend.

In 2006, she supported H.R. 4411, the Goodlatte-Leach Internet Gambling Prohibition Act In 2008, she opposed H.R. 5767, the Payment Systems Protection Act (a bill that sought to place a moratorium on enforcement of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act while the U.S. Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve defined "unlawful Internet gambling").

An ardent opponent of gun control, Brown-Waite was known for proudly carrying a gun on trips to her district.

She proposed the American Heroes Repatriation Act, to move American soldiers buried in France and Belgium back to the United States., in the process angering French officials and constituents.

He also said that Brown-Waite would support "a properly-worded resolution" that would put forth a no-confidence vote in Congress for Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld (who resigned in 2007).

Brown-Waite voted against an amendment that would have cut off funding for Planned Parenthood and other family planning organizations.

Brown-Waite is a staunch advocate of a federal prohibition of online poker.

She also caused a minor controversy when, commenting on the economic-stimulus package proposed by President Bush in early 2008, she referred to the peoples of Puerto Rico and Guam as "foreign citizens" (when they are, in fact, American citizens and nationals, respectively).

She has since clarified those comments with an article on the Orlando Sentinel.

On September 29, 2008, Brown-Waite voted against the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, and also voted against the amended version which was enacted.

The House version of the American Recovery and Investment Act was passed on January 28, 2009.

It had 107 cosponsors and was referred to a subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee, but it was never voted upon (either by any committee or the full Congress), and it died when the 109th Congress finally adjourned.

On Iraq, after reports that Brown-Waite supports the withdrawal of U.S. troops within a year, her spokesman said in an e-mail that "it was taken out of context" and that "she said that if the Iraqis did not work toward troop and police deadlines, then Congress would put pressure on them to do so with the threat of denying funds for reconstruction and possibly withdrawing some troops."