We applaud Villager Marsha Shearer for pursuing a formal complaint with the state over the nasty shenanigans that went on with the recent Sumter County Commission election.
In particular, the well-known Democratic activist is upset about two write-in candidates who clearly entered races in an attempt to game the system for incumbents Don Burgess and Steve Printz. Those two “fake candidates” – the-desperate-to-be-relevant Pete Wahl and Jerry Prince – eliminated 45,000 Sumter County Democratic and No Party Affiliation voters from participating in those two elections.
Of course, we all know who was really behind the move for “yes” men Wahl and Prince to enter the races and then drop out last week when it was too late to alter the outcome any further. We also knew The Villages Developer was desperate to have his three incumbents – Burgess, Al Butler and Printz – re-elected so he could continue to get his way, but even we were shocked and outraged at the level he attempted to reach to manipulate the outcome of the August primary.
That said, the Developer might not have faced such a Herculean task if those puppet commissioners hadn’t approved a 25-percent tax hike last year. That ridiculous increase, by the way, was seen across the county as nothing more than a sweetheart deal for the Developer, as it funded infrastructure in the newest portions of his mega-retirement community and paid for repaving roadways.
After realizing that Sumter County voters have long memories and the three challengers – Craig Estep, Gary Search and Oren Miller – stood a good chance of knocking out the incumbents, the Developer and his top political hack pulled out every dirty trick in the book. We can only imagine the laborious meetings at the Developer’s Brownwood headquarters where brainstorming sessions centered on how to manipulate an election instead of running clean races and respecting the wishes of voters.
Not surprisingly, the political hack and the incumbents took the tired route of hiring a Tallahassee firm to smear their competitors in direct mail pieces. They also expectedly wasted a bunch of money with large full-color ads in the Developer’s Pravda-like newspaper. And while that clearly didn’t work, it did put money right back into the Developer’s pocket – surprise, surprise!
Another tactic the incumbents took was suggesting that the tax increase was fake news. They insisted – months after the fact – that it really wasn’t a 25 percent tax hike and was being blown out of proportion. And they took a ton of money in campaign contributions from companies that do business with The Villages so they could afford all those wasted mail pieces and ads.
But without a doubt, the dirtiest tactic of all was having Wahl and Prince quietly enter two of the commission races as write-in candidates to eliminate 45,000 voters from participating. It was a despicable move and one we hope Villagers and other Sumter County residents won’t soon forget.
What makes this entire debacle even more ridiculous is the backgrounds of the “fake candidates.” Wahl spent more than 20 years as Villages District manager and is perhaps best known for starting the Rotary Club’s annual Chili Cook-Off in The Villages. He was around in the lean years and oversaw the development of Spanish Springs one building at a time. And he is the chairman of the Lake-Sumter State College Board of Trustees.
We guess he had either forgotten the not-so-subtle shove out the door he received in 2008 when the Developer was ready for a change in the District office or more likely his ego has remained so big that he just couldn’t turn down the call from the top political hack with the promise of seeing his name in print again.
Prince heads up the local Republican Club – a group that had donated $5,000 to each incumbent (yes, we all see the irony in that one). He long ago saw Villagers for Trump zoom past his good-old-boy club in membership numbers, so like Wahl, he was clearly desperate to get in good with the Developer – even if it meant selling his political soul.
Prince, by the way, stood up to a chorus of boos in September when he publicly praised the commissioners during the tax hike hearings. He sent out an email suggesting that the commission challengers didn’t understand the nuance or the need for that massive tax increase. And he took a swing at the media by writing: “This information of 25% was reported by many non-reputable Medias or as President Trump calls them ‘Fake News.’”
Of course, none of us were surprised to see Wahl and Prince quietly drop out last week after they could no longer alter the outcome. Their exit assured Estep and Miller of serving on the commission. And No Party Affiliate candidate Larry Green has got about as much of a chance of defeating Search as the likelihood of the Developer actually listening to his residents and abandoning his fascination with tossing up apartments across The Villages.
We weren’t surprised to learn that Shearer found no humor in the fake candidate maneuver and did something about it by updating her earlier complaint with the state over “corrupt interference with my right to vote.”
Shearer said the abrupt withdrawal of Wahl and Prince provided additional proof that their candidacies were never sincere. She also suggested that the fake candidates didn’t come up with the scheme by themselves.
We couldn’t agree more. Sumter County voters sent the Developer a clear message on Election Night. Now we hope state officials will do the same thing by making him and his fake candidates pay the price for such a blatant move to block voters from participating in the democratic process.
At the very least, we believe the Developer and his fake candidates owe Sumter County residents an apology. What they did was horrendous and every voter should let them know how disgusted they are by their greed-driven actions.
