The Daily Sun’s Voter Guide– a New Low in Journalistic Integrity. Most residents realize that The Villages Developer-owned Daily Sun is really a propaganda tool of the Developer disguised as a newspaper, and we sometimes jokingly compare it to Pravda. However, the Daily Sun’s Voter Guide to the Primary Election Ballot, which appeared in last Sunday’s edition, hit a new low in describing the Sumter County Commission election. It is filled with so many lies, omissions, and distortions that comparing it to Pravda would be an insult to Pravda. To understand why the Daily Sun stooped to that level, one must understand that there is one basic issue in the Sumter County Commission election.
The Basic Issue in the Sumter County Election. The basic issue in the Sumter County Commission election is:
- Will we have Sumter County government of the Developer, by the Developer, and for the Developer; or
- Will we have Sumter County government of the residents, by the residents, and for the residents.
The Daily Sun’s Voter Guide is an example of the Developer’s using his newspaper to try to attain the former and of the willingness of the “journalists” employed at the Daily Sun to abandon their conscience and ignore the journalist code of ethics . This is being done in support of Developer-backed candidates for County Commission: Lazich, Coon, and Wiley, who are running against pro-resident candidates Butterfield, Estep, and Miller. The reason for the Developer’s desire to control the County Commission is twofold: (1) To be able to get rubber-stamp approval of his plans to expand The Villages; and (2) To continue to offload on to the residents the cost of his county infrastructure by maintaining his sweetheart impact fee.
Lazich, Coon, and Wiley have been depicted in this POA Bulletin cartoon as “Developer Puppets”, and I will refer to them as such:
Full Disclosure. Before going further, full disclosure: I am a life-long Republican I hold no office in the POA. I have no inside information about any of the following, and consequently everything I say is verifiable from publicly available sources. My sole qualification to comment on this subject is that I have been paying attention to Sumter County politics since 2019, when I woke up to the fact that a 25% property tax on the residents was being enacted to preserve the Developer’s sweetheart impact fee by having the residents pay, through our property tax, for the Developer’s county infrastructure.
Some Examples of the Lies, Distortions, and Omissions in the Guide. In order to keep this opinion piece reasonably short, I am only briefly citing SOME of the lies, distortions and omissions in the Guide:
- The False Claim that the POA is “an organization critical of Gov. DeSantis”. To the best of my knowledge, the POA’s only criticism of Gov. DeSantis was of his removal of Commissioners Search and Miller, when they were arrested on felony perjury charges and were replaced by Governor DeSantis with substitutes obviously designated by the Developer, who is one of the Governor’s largest contributors. The POA’s position was that the charges were bogus, that the charges were brought after Miller and Search threatened the Developer’s sweetheart impact fee, and that Miller and Search should not have been removed and replaced until the outcome of their trials. The POA’s position, of course, was vindicated when the felony charge against Search faded into a pre-trial intervention agreement and the court of appeals threw out the charge against Miller, eviscerating the prosecution for bringing it in the first place and requiring the Governor to reinstate Miller.
- The False Claim that the POA “favors tax increases”. The POA actually favors reducing residents’ property taxes by requiring the Developer to pay for his own county infrastructure by increasing his sweetheart impact fee.
- Lack of Historical Context in Discussing Current Issues. There is no historical context for any of the statements made in the Guide, especially the historic rout of Commissioners Butler, Burgess, and Printz in 2020 after they protected the Developer’s sweetheart impact fee by increasing our property tax by 25%
- No Information About Puppets Lazich and Coon’s Absence at Meetings. County Commission candidates Lazich and Coon are running for Commissioner, but have not been attending County Commission meetings. They also were apparently afraid to show up at the POA’s Meet-the-Candidates night.
- No Mention of Wiley’s Support of the Developer’s Sweetheart Impact Fee. At the POA’s Meet-the-Candidates night, Wiley specifically said that he is opposed to requiring the Developer to pay for new fire stations through a fire impact fee.
- No Mention of Coon’s Loyalty Pledge. The Guide does not mention candidate Coon’s loyalty pledge to the Developer, as described in an article on this website.
- No Mention of the Source of the Almost $300,000 Raked in by the Developer Puppets. The legal limit for a contributor contributing to a County Commission candidate is $1,000. The POA’s July Bulletin charts how that limit is circumvented by having controlled companies, suppliers, and their owners’ family members each donate $1,000.
- No Mention of the Write-In Candidates. There is no mention of the fake write-in candidates for County Commissioner or of the possibility that they and their enablers may have committed a crime by corruptly interfering with the right of 50,000 voters to vote.
Time for a Change of the Guard within the Local Republican Party. Seeing how the Developer is using his economic power and media ownership to control local government made me, as a rank-and-file Republican, realize that for, too long, BOTH local government and the leadership of the local Republican Party have been in the hands of designees of The Villages Developer. In the upcoming Republican primary, we can break his control of local government by electing Butterfield, Estep, and Miller. In addition, we can PERHAPS also start to change the leadership of the local Republican Party itself.
This is because the incumbent State Committeeman, Jerry Prince, and the incumbent State Committeewoman, Edna Santana, are being challenged by opponents who MAY start to represent the interests of all the residents, not just one (the Developer). The challengers are Bob Greene and Diane Olsen. Mr. Greene has specifically stated that he is “not beholden to local special interests”, which is an encouraging statement. Ms. Olsen has pledged to “building unity”. Both are long-time Republicans and staunch conservatives. They have been endorsed by the POA, something which, surprisingly, the Guide does not mention and use as a criticism.
With respect to Mr. Prince, voters should remember that he served as a fake write-in candidate in the 2020 election as part of the unsuccessful effort to keep Commissioners Butler, Burgess, and Printz in office. His actions made him one of the subjects of a criminal complaint, which was eventually deep-sixed by State Attorney Bill Gladson, the same guy who brought the bogus perjury charge against Oren Miller. Prince’s fake candidacy was the subject of several informative articles on this site, one of which is aptly entitled “Villages Developer and his fake candidates should hang their heads in shame”. That history, alone, is reason enough to vote against Prince.
Conclusion: Hopefully, Rank-and-File Republicans Will Repeat 2020. Because no Democrats are running, the County Commission races will be decided in the Republican Primary on August 20. Mail-in-ballots have already been sent out, and early voting starts on August 10. Hopefully, despite the Daily Sun’s Voter Guide, rank-and-file Republicans will repeat what we did in 2020 and vote against the Developer Puppets Lazich, Coon, and Wiley and vote in Butterfield, Estep, and Miller. Hopefully, we will also elect Mr. Greene and Ms. Olsen in order to bring some new people into leadership of our local Party.
Scott Fenstermaker is a resident of The Villages.