TALLAHASSEE — Attorney General Pamela Jo Bondi has completely upended her life in the past 18 months.
She won her first election. She and longtime boyfriend Greg Henderson got engaged. She moved to Tallahassee and successfully pushed for a new law to shut down Florida's pill mills and combat prescription-drug addiction.
"Surreal. So busy," she said.
She also has been reminded that her every move is under a microscope.
In May, Bondi's office quietly dismissed two foreclosure-fraud attorneys, Theresa Edwards and June Clarkson, who had won national attention (and a $2 million settlement) for exposing lending fraud. But in July, the two women went public, saying their firing was political and releasing their yearly evaluations, which were all glowing.
To make matters worse, another attorney, Joe Jacquot, a holdover from former Attorney General Bill McCollum's term, had taken a job at Lender Processing Services. The company was under investigation and had also contributed $500 to Bondi and more than $40,000 to other candidates and the state's two political parties.
Critics said Bondi was letting the banks slide by and the women were forced out for their aggressiveness. Bondi countered that her subordinates found "numerous problems" with the attorneys' work, but there were no documents to back that up.
Ultimately, she asked Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater, a Republican, to investigate. She still backs her aides but admitted she was "troubled" by the documentation issue. "I want to make this the best office in the entire country, and the only way I can improve is to get recommendations and get the advice of others," she said, adding that she has assigned more lawyers to the mortgage-fraud investigation.
Said State Rep. Darren Soto, D-Orlando, who sought a federal review of the firings, "I would imagine that the honeymoon is over, and she will be more sensitive to these issues. But that's a good thing."
It was the first real bump in the 45-year-old Tampa native's rise to political stardom.
At the start of 2010, Bondi was an 18-year veteran in the Hillsborough CountyState Attorney's Office, having started as an intern in her last semester at Stetson Law School.
She was felony-bureau chief and the office's primary spokeswoman; she had sent two people to death row; she had convicted professional baseball player Dwight Gooden for violation of probation and for substance abuse. And she had a growing reputation as a tart-tongued guest legal commentator on Fox News.
"She was a rock star in Tampa," said state Rep. Dana Young, R-Tampa. "Everybody loved Pam."
Local GOP consultant Adam Goodman told her she would be the perfect candidate for attorney general: a tough, telegenic prosecutor with name recognition from her Fox work. Additionally, "people tend to really like her," he said.
"She can perform like nobody else's business, and she's fresh," Goodman added.
But it took a while to persuade her. Bondi wasn't keen on having a weekend relationship with Henderson, a Tampa ophthalmologist, and his four grown children. It also meant putting them, plus her parents, siblings and their families through a campaign.
"I loved my life. I loved living in Tampa. I loved being a prosecutor," she said. "And then you wonder if you can make a difference on a larger scale, the whole state."
Henderson also briefly became a campaign issue.
Social conservative John Stemberger — a backer of Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp — publicly challenged Bondi's private life.
"Personally, she has no children and lives with her 60-year-old eye doctor boyfriend," he wrote.
Kim Kirtley, another campaign consultant, said this dismayed Bondi, but added it was also the "first time we all realized just how tough Pam Bondi really is."
Bondi easily beat primary opponents Kottkamp and Pensacola attorney Holly Benson. In the general election, she rode a Republican wave to an easy win over Miami Beach state Sen. Dan Gelber by emphasizing her years as a prosecutor and "tough on crime" record.
The victory put Bondi in charge of an office with almost 1,200 employees who do everything from fraud investigations to representing the state in all legal appeals, including capital cases. She described her entrance into the job as like "drinking out of a fire hose."
It also meant splitting her life between Tallahassee and Tampa.
Bondi spends about 13 hours per day in the office, then heads straight home to her rented condo, often to do another hour or two of work. She calls Henderson at about 7 a.m. when she's arriving at the office and then again at night when she's leaving. Late at night, she's often on her iPad or reading the "Game of Thrones" series before bed.
On Fridays, she hops into her Mercedes SUV with a 165-pound St. Bernard named Luke for the four-hour drive to Tampa and Henderson. The couple plan to marry in a small, private ceremony later this year. Bondi bought a simple, strapless white dress in late July.
