Seems Will has more addresses than I can count. Registered to vote from Fruitland Park
in 2006. Has a ranch in Weirsdale not registered in 2008. Now lives in Sumterville since May of 2008 not sure if he is registered there or not. Certainly not in a P.O. Box I was informed

What I want to know is what does the Sun (i.e., the developer) have against him? So far, I've seen two very negative stories about him. One was the address issue. The other was his record as a police officer/sheriff in the past. I found it interesting that the last section of this article admitted that he had had positive reports while serving for Lady Lake. It almost (?) feels like a smear campaign.

Don't get me wrong, I am not pro-Pruitt. I honestly don't know enough about him nor his opposition to make an informed decision one way or the other. I would just be more comfortable if the Sun would appear a bit more objective in its stories.

I agree, Red. It still concerns me, though. If he did not do what the Sun says he did, he could sue. I don't think they would have taken the chance.
I think Pruitt's father is a pol also.

I tend to agree that the two recent articles about Pruitt seem to indicate a bias on the part of Villages Media. I don't know if this slant is justified or not. On the other hand, I don't recollect any coverage, positive or negative, about his opponent, O'Toole. I think if there were an active opposition to one, the other would be getting at least some positive mention.

Re Pruitt, I just feel uneasy about him. I'm a bit old school re work history. I don't like job hopping and think one should be in a position longer than over coffee to claim great credentials from it. For example, the 4th item on Pruitt's "Accomplishments" is "Former Police Chief". Evidently, from info in the story, he was chief in a real small town for about an hour and a half -- and left under weird circumstances. All in all, Pruitt's CV is just too sketchy, on his fliers or website.

Muncle, I am glad you weighed in on this as I respect your knowledge and wisdom. Your opinions carry great weight with me.

Muncle makes some very good points. But every newspaper in the US chooses it's candidates and supports them to the fullest. The Daily Sun is a Republican paper, that exhorts the popular party line. The incumbent is a loyal supporter of the party and therefore is the candidate of choice. Also, if you destroy the only competition, what other choices are available.

I am neither for nor against Pruitt, but while I am suspicious of the Sun's motives, they do raise serious questions regarding Pruitt's suitability. If the accusations/assertions by the Sun are left unchallenged, or unexplained, I will tend to have to go with the candidate who, to date, seems unscathed (O'Toole). I would really like to see a detailed explanation by Mr. Pruitt before I make up my mind.

http://www.ocala.com/article/20080721/NEWS/506538916

[The link to this news story replaces the use of the entire news story. -- Tony]

Originally Posted by gemorc

Muncle makes some very good points. But every newspaper in the US chooses it's candidates and supports them to the fullest. The Daily Sun is a Republican paper, that exhorts the popular party line. The incumbent is a loyal supporter of the party and therefore is the candidate of choice. Also, if you destroy the only competition, what other choices are available.

A couple problems, Ge. Pruitt is a Republican. 2nd, there is no incumbent running for reelection. There are term limits, and the incumbent, Hugh Gibson, cannot run again. As far as I know, there are two people seeking the GOP nomination for the seat, Pruitt and Marlene O'Toole. Don't know if there is Democrat opposition.

He [ . . . ] thinks he is above the rules of
the Villages.

[Text removed by Tony]

Here is the Division of Elections website. You can check out who is running, review their campaign reports, and who their contributors are.

http://election.dos.state.fl.us/candidate/canlist.asp

There is not a Democratic candidate. However, there are two write-ins:

Betty Cunningham who lives in the Villages
Jeremy Grondahl who lives in Leesburg.

Marlene O'Toole also lives in the Villages.
Will Pruitt's address is a P.O. Box in Lady Lake.

Interesting is that the write-in candidtates show no contributions yet (according to last campaign reports); Marlene O'toole shows apporximatley $69,000 and Will Pruitt shows approximately $80,000, and both have some from contributors outside of the district, including Tallahassee where the elected candidate will be voting on new legislation. However, it appears that O'Toole has more local (Lake/Sumter) contributors compared to Pruitt who has more out of district contributors.

VK2

If you go to the link above for the Ocala Star Banner, I think you will realize that he did everything correctly. The Marion County Tax Collector admits that they did not remove the homestead exemption when he requested.

The Daily Sun tells us everything that they want us to know about Pruitt. What do we know about O'Toole's history?

I don't know about O'Toole's history but I do find the campaign contribution list for both candidates of interest. Why are so many out of District contributions to Pruitt from medical interests?

See website for both Pruitt's and O'Tooles contributors. Go to House/Senate Lake or Sumter county. Then at the bottom call up campaign contributors:

http://election.dos.state.fl.us/candidate/Index.asp

VK2

I believe if you do a little research you will find the answer to your question concerning Mr. Pruitt and his PO Box.

In the rural areas of Florida there is no mail delivery to the homes so people have their mail delivered to PO Boxes. I learned this the hard way when I first moved to the area 15 years ago. I would look up an address and mail something only to have it returned to me. It didn't take long to learn the facts on mail delivery; the address in the phone book is the physical address not the mailing address.

We in The Villages are fortunate that we have mail drop centers and not PO Boxes at the local Post Office. Hope this clears up this question, that has been going round and round, about Mr. Pruitt's PO Box address.

POC