The Sumter Commission chairman has filed paperwork indicating he’ll seek another term.
Villager Craig Estep originally won election in 2020 in a wave of voter rebellion that saw three incumbents driven from office after they voted for a 25 percent tax increase seen as a sweetheart deal for the Developer of The Villages. Fellow Commissioners Gary Search and Oren Miler got caught up in a perjury scandal and were removed from office.
Estep, the lone survivor of the 2020 election, has been seen as a steady hand and was chosen to head the commission after the election last year of new commissioners Andrew Bilardello, Jeff Bogue, Roberta Ulrich and Don Wiley. Ulrich and Wiley had been appointed to their seats by Gov. Ron DeSantis, but won election in their own right last year.