A Sumter County commissioner has reimbursed himself with campaign cash after buying his way onto the ballot.
Village of Bridgeport at Lake Sumter resident Al Butler was trounced in the Aug. 18 GOP primary by fellow Villager Gary Search.
While the Village of Amelia resident said he had “no trouble” collecting the necessary signatures to get his name on the ballot, Butler paid a $3,534 fee on May 26, four days after he loaned $4,000 to his own campaign. Butler had been the subject of an urgent plea in April calling for voters, even Democrats, to sign his petition, yet he still came up short.
Butler won the money battle, raising $79,071 in campaign cash, to the $6,475 raised by Search. However, Search won 19,559 votes to Butler’s 10,058 votes.
After the Aug. 18 defeat, Butler tapped his campaign coffers for $5,587 in “reimbursement,” according to documents on file with the Sumter County Supervisor of Elections. In addition to the $3,534 spent to secure a space on the ballot, Butler’s expenses included $12 spent on ballpoint pens ordered from Amazon “to prepare petitions,” $18.98 to set up a website and $115 for campaign cards at Office Depot in Summerfield.
The bulk of Butler’s campaign cash was spent with a Tallahassee consulting firm specializing in direct mail and opposition research. Butler spent $49,722 with the firm, ’96 Consulting. He also spent $9,063 in advertising with The Villages Daily Sun.
Butler’s re-election bid was dogged by anger over last year’s 25 percent property tax increase seen as a sweetheart deal for the Developer of The Villages.
Search will face No Party Affiliation candidate Larry Green in the November election.
