A rival candidate is upset about Don Wiley’s appointment last week to the Sumter County Commission.
Villager Daniel Myslakowski unloaded on Sumter County Republican Party Chair Samantha Scott in an email on Monday, alleging the GOP deck is stacked against him.
Myslakowski and Wiley are both running for the District 5 seat in the Aug. 23 primary. There is no Democratic candidate, so the primary will be a winner-take-all contest. Wiley, a resident of the Village of Hillsborough who previously served as the chairman of the Project Wide Advisory Committee, was appointed this past Friday to the commission by Gov. Ron DeSantis.
“The fact that this appointment happened with only one person being recommended and the fact that I was never communicated to pretty much says it all,” the Village of Dunedin resident said in his email to Scott.
Myslakowski vowed that in August, the voters of Sumter County will have the final word on who will sit in the District 5 seat.
“I am very disappointed in how this appointment was made, and the lack of it being open, transparent, or fair like an election, where people can have a say in who they want to represent them,” he said.
Oren Miller was elected in 2020 to the District 5 seat, but he was suspended by the governor after facing a perjury charge. The governor then appointed Village of Gilchrist resident Diane Spencer to the commission seat. She resigned a short time later.
