Connie was born in 1956 in Rockville Centre, N.Y., and graduated from the University of South Florida in 1978. She joined the St. Petersburg Times in 1979. She was part of the data analysis group that worked on the Florida recount after the 2000 election, along with colleagues from the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Orlando Sentinel, CNN and Associated Press. She has worked on projects about felonious prison guards, missing military weapons and Florida's lax corporate tax laws.