Brian:

It is true that Marlene O'Toole did drop out of high school to help support her family. She began as a typist and then joined IBM. She did work her way up through the ranks and became a regional manager with an annual budget of $25.5 million and was responsible for multi-site operations with more than 800 employees. I don't want to argue semantics with you, but in my eyes, that's a pretty good definition of an executive. She did retire after 30 years with IBM.

That's what my homework revealed. I don't find any character flaws, rather strength.

I do feel that it is a shame that this campaign has turned out to be so negative, but in Marlene's defense, she has not jumped into the fray. She has not made any derrogative statements about Will, but has made rebuttals to the mistatements that Will Puitt has made about her. I find no blame in that. Tallahassee, on the other hand has been shameless in their mailers. Then again, claims should be checked out an not accepted as facts.

By the way, if you would like extra credit on a homework assignment, you might take a trip down to Center Hill and get a copy of the letter addressed to Mayor Davis, dated October 2, 1999, regarding investigations of complaints against the police department (with Police department narratives). The Orlando Sentinel and the Leesburg Daily Commercial covered the "cat incident" of 9/07/99 quite well, but without the "dicey" language quoted in the Lady Lake police reports. If you get a copy of those reports, I advise against letting any ladies read them.

I apologize for taking so long to get back to you. Have been off site for a while.