Adam Guillette

</noinclude>Adam Guillette is an American political activist living in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.
Biography
From 1999 until 2004 Guillette attended the University of Florida. While there he served as the chairman of their College Republicans club.
In 1999 Guillette helped create a political action committee called The Liberty Project. In 2000 this PAC ran two candidates for Gainesville City Commission and registered nearly 4,000 students to vote in a four week period. However, both candidates finished third in their elections, failing to qualify for the runoff election.
Later in 2000 Guillette and The Liberty Project took on a proposed Gainesville law to raise city commission salaries. The legislation raised the pay of each of the commissioners by 26.%, making Gainesville the highest paid city commission in the state of Florida. The city was experiencing a $1.2 million budget shortfall at the time and as a result the pay raise became quite controversial. Organizations like the Fraternal Order of Police joined the fight against the pay raise. However, the raise still passed unanimously.
In the spring of 2001 Guillette ran for Mayor of Gainesville, Florida. A major plank in his campaign was his opposition to the 26.2% pay raised. On election night he finished 3rd in a field of 6 candidates. Incumbent Mayor Paula Delaney gained a plurality of the vote, but not a majority. As a result, a runoff election was held with the top two candidates. Many local Republicans pressured Guillette to endorse fellow Republican Delaney in the runoff election. He decided against endorsing her and she was defeated in the runoff. Later, she changed her party affiliation and registered as a Democrat.
Also in 2001 Guillette helped launch a conservative student newspaper called, "The Gator Standard." He initially served as Managing Editor and later as Publisher. "The Gator Standard" eventually became the largest student-owned newspaper in the country, printing over 15,000 copies weekly. After the publication of their third issue, Guillette and "The Gator Standard" were featured in National Review magazine.
In 2002 Guillette began a campaign at the University of Florida to place American flags in college classrooms. The project became incredibly controversial and Guillette gained a significant amount of regional and nationwide media coverage as a result. After being a guest on the Alan Colmes radio show, Guillette and several of his fellow activists were featured in The New York Times.
Eventually, Guillette's efforts proved fruitful and in 2004 a law was passed by the Florida legislature placing American flags in every public school classroom in the state of Florida. The legislation was written by State Senator Mike Fasano. Rather than using tax dollars to pay for the flags, the legislation required university presidents and provosts to raise the funds on their own.
A year later Guillette became a faculty member for the Arlington, VA based Leadership Institute.
In 2007 Adam Guillette became Florida's State Director of Americans for Prosperity. In this capacity he helped defeat a $250 million property tax increase in Duval County, Florida, as well as a $120 million sales tax increase in St. Johns County, Florida.
While serving as State Director of Americans for Prosperity Guillette also led an unsuccessful effort to enact a Florida version of the Taxpayer Bill of Rights. This legislation would have forced state and local government to gain voter approval before increasing their spending at a pace greater than inflation and population growth. With a 2/3rd's vote of a special committee known as the Taxation and Budget Reform Commission, the Florida "Taxpayer Protection Amendment" would have been placed on the 2010 ballot to be approved or rejected by voters.
AFP was initially able to get their "TPA" past two subcommittees of the special state committee. After this happened, both former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and current Florida Governor Charlie Crist indicated that they supported the proposal. Polling also showed that the legislation was supported by a majority of voters. However, in the final full-committee hearing AFP's proposal fell one vote short of the two-thirds majority needed to be placed on the 2010 ballot.
Guillette is currently a distinguished faculty member of The Leadership Institute. He also serves as the Executive Director of Conservative Leadership PAC.
Trivia
Like his hero Ronald Reagan, Guillette and his wife Nikki own a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel named Liberty.

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