Quote:
Originally Posted by Marathon Man
I've seen/heard others make this statement. Can someone please explain to me how a company can "put" county commisioners into office. They are elected by the voting residents of the county. Are you saying that the election process was corrupted by "the Developer"?
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Assuming that you really want an answer to your question and are not simply trying to muddy the water and defend the status quo, here is a short explanation:
IMPORTANCE OF CONTROL OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS TO FLORIDA DEVELOPERS AND VOTER APATHY. Most Sumter County voters cannot name their County Commissioners, haven't attached much importance to county commissioners, and haven't paid much attention to their election contests. But a“close” relationship with county commissioners is crucially importance to Florida developers. County commissioners control zoning, road development, community development districts, and most importantly, impact fees. (An impact fee is a charge for each house built and is supposed to pay for the additional infrastructure necessitated by the additional house.)
To fully understand the importance of county commissioners to developers, Google: “Florida county commissioner bribe”. Remember those news reports are just about the county commissioners who got caught. When a bribe is negotiated and paid, there are often only two people in the room. Therefore, many corrupt commissioners do not get caught. But, I want to make it clear that I have no evidence that anything illegal has taken place here.
IF YOU ARE THE DEVELOPER, HOW CAN YOU LEGALLY "PUT" YOUR GUYS IN AS COUNTY COMMISSIONERS? It's not really hard, since, as pointed out above, most voters haven't paid much attention to the county-commissioner election races. But here, briefly, is how you "put" your guys on the Sumter County Commission if you are the Developer (or at least, here is how you do it as far as can be determined from publicly available information):
1. Control the local media. Own the local newspaper, TV station, and radio station. Don't let them report anything that reflects badly on your candidates, the Republican Party, The Villages, or yourself.
2. Control the local Republican organizations. (Full disclosure, I am a Republican.) By contributing and having your cronies be active, you get control of the local Republican organizations so that your guys get nominated and supported. Have the organizations resist any effort by other Republican candidates to oppose your guys for the Republican County Commissioner nomination. Get the One Sumter ballot measure passed to facilitate this.
3. Promote candidates from your political farm team. Set up a farm team from which you can promote political candidates and who, through the team's monthly newsletter (which you distribute with your newspaper) will help you control information available to voters. You call this farm team the “Villages Homeowners Advocates”-- and it will never say an unkind word about you or your guys on the Sumter County Commission.
4.
When your guys need money, throw in whatever is necessary. If you are successful with regard to #1-#3, you often don't need to actually contribute much to their campaigns. Your guys will almost never get challenged in the Republican primary, and there is no way a Democrat is going to get elected in Sumter County. BUT, if your guys do need some dough because of a challenge, you and your suppliers throw in whatever is needed.
For more information, do a little digging. A good place to start is:
Candidates & Committees Profiles & Financial Reports There you will find REPORTED political contributions.