[Villages Kahuna]

Somewhat surprisingly, the three candidates that challenged the three developer-supported Incumbents for positions as Sumter County Commissioners won the Republican Primary convincingly. The challengers will have to win the General Election in November, and there will be lots of developer-designed and funded challenges, probably for write-in candidates. The upcoming weeks will be interesting as this will be the first time in at least a decade when the Sumter County Board won’t be cleanly “in the pocket” of The Villages Developer.

What’s at risk for the Developer? Lots of things. Without a lot of study, how about...

—A repeal of the major change which has the new roads and infrastructure in the new southern end of The Villages funded by the taxpayers rather than the Developer as had been the practice until this year. The result of the change was a 25% increase in property taxes. The challengers all ran with the repeal of those tax increases as a major plank in their platforms.

—The possible repeal of the “One Sumter” procedure for the election of County Commissioners. The change in the electoral process goes back almost fifteen years and was designed and sponsored by the Developer. The result of the electoral change was that the County Board could be controlled by three members, all of whom have turned out to be choices of the Developer and financed by them. The result of course was pretty much complete control of the Board in getting anything the Developer wanted approved.

—There are lots of other decisions facing the County Commissioners that will effect all Villages residents living in Sumter County (the vast majority of us). Not the least important issue might be approval of the re-zoning of the Hacienda Hills CC parcel to permit the construction of a high-rise 286-unit apartment building.

So it’ll probably be important for all of us to begin to pay lots more attention to local Sumter County politics. You can be certain that the Developer will be very creative approaching the General Election and beyond, trying to regain control of the Sumter County Board. Keeping local politics in the control of the taxpayers will take our collective, continual attention.

[DeanFL]

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WOW! Personally we changed from 'No Party' Affiliation' to 'Republican' in order to vote in the Primary. We are both Independents, but after research it was apparent that the 3 incumbents do(did) not deserve to be in those posts any longer. Some videos we saw of several Committee meetings, and how they treated our citizens (and in turn us all) soured us so much we HAD to vote.

This is good news - sure hope that we end up with more sincere and honest reps.

I must say - today we went online and switched back to NPA.

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[Advogado]

Good job, voters of Sumter County: 3 down! 2 to go! In 2022, we need to finish the cleansing of the County Commission by voting out the two remaining Developer puppets--Breeden and Gilpin.

Let's watch what happens between now and the departure of Butler, Burgess, and Printz after the general election in November. They may try to poison the well for the incumbents by tying the County into as many sweetheart contracts with
the Developer as possible.

[tophcfa]

Anticipate a fast track to re-zone the Hacienda Hills CC parcel before the puppets leave office.

[OrangeBlossomBaby]

I'm unaffiliated and didn't realize until too late that there were primaries for local elections (most of our town elections in my town up north were one Dem vs. one GOP and sometimes an independent, so there weren't ever any primaries needed - several seats ran unopposed and maybe would get 10 write-ins on election day for someone else). So I was locked out of primaries for our county this year.

I'm in Lake County though, and I don't know diddly about Lake County politics. So it's probably best that I stayed out of this year's primaries, and I'll educate myself for the election day itself.

[tophcfa]

I sincerely hope this is a wake up call for the current generation of the family, that what is best for both the existing residents of the Villages and the developers can run on a parallel pathway. That business model worked extremely well for the previous generations of the family, and made them rich beyond their wildest dreams, and there is nothing wrong with that. Let’s all hope that this sends a clear message that Gary Morse's business model is far superior to what we have increasingly experienced over the last few years : )

[Dr Winston O Boogie jr]

I though that Hacienda Hills CC was in Lake county.

[Ladygolfer93]

Originally Posted by Villages Kahuna

Somewhat surprisingly, the three candidates that challenged the three developer-supported Incumbents for positions as Sumter County Commissioners won the Republican Primary convincingly. The challengers will have to win the General Election in November, and there will be lots of developer-designed and funded challenges, probably for write-in candidates. The upcoming weeks will be interesting as this will be the first time in at least a decade when the Sumter County Board won’t be cleanly “in the pocket” of The Villages Developer.

What’s at risk for the Developer? Lots of things. Without a lot of study, how about...

—A repeal of the major change which has the new roads and infrastructure in the new southern end of The Villages funded by the taxpayers rather than the Developer as had been the practice until this year. The result of the change was a 25% increase in property taxes. The challengers all ran with the repeal of those tax increases as a major plank in their platforms.

—The possible repeal of the “One Sumter” procedure for the election of County Commissioners. The change in the electoral process goes back almost fifteen years and was designed and sponsored by the Developer. The result of the electoral change was that the County Board could be controlled by three members, all of whom have turned out to be choices of the Developer and financed by them. The result of course was pretty much complete control of the Board in getting anything the Developer wanted approved.

—There are lots of other decisions facing the County Commissioners that will effect all Villages residents living in Sumter County (the vast majority of us). Not the least important issue might be approval of the re-zoning of the Hacienda Hills CC parcel to permit the construction of a high-rise 286-unit apartment building.

So it’ll probably be important for all of us to begin to pay lots more attention to local Sumter County politics. You can be certain that the Developer will be very creative approaching the General Election and beyond, trying to regain control of the Sumter County Board. Keeping local politics in the control of the taxpayers will take our collective, continual attention.

So very well said and WARNED, but, how many will actually care ? Will do their homework ? Will keep an eye on things ? I have found it takes a LOT of time, searching, "digging" around to get ACTUAL facts and figures from REAL sources live government docs !

[queasy27]

Originally Posted by Dr Winston O Boogie jr

I thought that Hacienda Hills CC was in Lake county.

And back to reality.

Be interesting to see how the Lake County Commissioners respond. In my casual view, they are generally pro development (which doesn't necessarily mean pro Developer). I don't recall any big battles or crises when the land for the new Lake County villages was sold a few years ago.

[Coal Miner]

Very exciting. I hope we can continue to remove incumbents who do things for their own self interests this Nov.

[J1ceasar]

Round one folks .

[jacksonbrown]

Originally Posted by tophcfa

Anticipate a fast track to re-zone the Hacienda Hills CC parcel before the puppets leave office.

Should the current crop decide to fast track or enter into sweetheart deals, we property owners can sue, claiming

Qualified Immunity

1. They WILL BE voted out,

2 They WILL NOT have Sumter County taxpayers paying their legal bills. Even if they win their QI lawsuits, their personal costs will be enormous.

[Pillowtalk]

We also had to do the same thing. Switching back today also. What we need here and in our goverment is elected officials who put the country and the good of it’s people before their party. And also someone who represents all of us, instead of just half of us would help to bring us together to end to this divide.

[Two Bills]

The Beatles - Can't Buy Me Love - YouTube

[sharonl7340]

I have been a Democrat my entire adult voting life. I align more with Democratic thoughts and values, but changed my party affiliation for this election. I assumed I would go back online change it back over after the election yesterday, but I have been thinking that would be a mistake. This county is controlled by a Republican majority and if I change back then I can't vote in the primaries that will ultimately decide who the candidates (opposed or unopposed) in November will be. I think I will keep my party affiliation as Republican just to balance out the deeply conservative votes in these primaries. This same situation (that occured in this election) will continue to happen in future races and I want to be ready to cast my vote for candidates who will listen to the citizens they are supposed to serve. I think the term has always been a "yellow Democrat" for a person to change their party to win an election; I'll be a yellow Republican to hopefully effect some change in the elections.