Democrat Bill Smalley Says He Was Backdoored by Party for Linda Stewart
Citizens for Better Government, L.L.C. has uncovered an elaborate plot by the Lake County Democrat Party to win the District #4 Commissioner Seat for current Commissioner Linda Stewart, who is registered as Republican but many call a RINO (Republican in Name Only). Most Republicans feel both Linda Stewart and Elaine Renick are only in the party in order to get elected, since Lake County is heavily Republican.
According to eye witness accounts, Commissioner Linda Stewart barely made the qualifying deadline at noon on May 17, 2010, with election cards. Her Democrat challenger, Egor Emory, along with District 2 Republican candidate, David Yeager, were literally bringing in cards for Stewart up until the last few minutes. An eye witness places Egor Emory outside the courthouse receiving cards from David Yeager, and then Emory worked with Commissioner Elaine Renick to ensure Stewart got qualified. According to our sources, Yeager worked closely with Commissioner Renick to secure South Lake election cards for Stewart. Keep in mind that Renick and Yeager are opponents in the District #2 race.
According to Democrat County Commission #4 candidate, Bill Smalley, the Lake County Democrat Party is orchestrating a strategy to ensure that Commissioner Linda Stewart wins the Republican Primary with no competition in the general election. The Democrat Party, which had promised support for Smalley for a year, quickly switched their efforts to get Emory qualified as the Democrat challenger for the District #4 race. Smalley contends that the Lake County Democrat Party intentionally misled him to the very end, assuring him that they would secure the election cards he would need to get on the ballot. Instead, they collected cards for Emory. Smalley claims a secret email was sent to members about the plot.
Bill Smalley told Citizens for Better Government, L.L.C. he will be filing a grievance with the State Democrat Party for the shenanigans of Chairman Democrat Nancy Hurlbert and the local committee because they are manipulating the system to ensure Linda Stewart gets re-elected. Smalley contends, “If Egor is the Democrat nominee and he is running against Linda Stewart, he will not campaign, so Stewart will win.” Smalley alleges that Democrats Nancy Hurlbert, Cindy Barrow, and others in the South Lake Democrat Party, have all said they will support Linda Stewart – the Republican. It should be noted that Republican Commissioners, Stewart and Renick, have supported many committee assignments to prominent Democrats, including Hurlbert.
According to Smalley, the plan is to have Egor Emory as the only Democrat candidate for District #4 Commissioner, so Democrat voters like Barrow and others from the extreme environmental movement can switch party registrations to the Republican Party, allowing them to vote in Linda Stewart as the Republican nominee.
Bill Smalley says that Lake County Democrat Chairperson, Nancy Hurlbert, told him, “You have aligned yourself with the enemy,” because of his stands opposing the Comprehensive Plan, impact fees, and the landscape ordinance. Smalley told us, “I am a conservative Democrat who supports job growth and business, but we must balance it with protecting the environment. People have got to work.” He went on to say, “I was backdoored by the South Lake Democrat party who has an environmental agenda.” The Democrat Party in Leesburg and The Plantation at Leesburg has been offering real support for my candidacy.
Smalley said, “I am looking for campaign donations to cover the $4,378 registration fee, but I am confident I will be on the ballot.” He further said, “A state Democrat official told me that the local party is not supposed to be doing what it is doing.” Smalley defiantly said, “Voters in Lake County should hedge their bets with me – I’ll beat Linda Stewart in a General Election.”
Skepticism has been murmured throughout the District #4 Republican primary, as many observers question the seriousness of the Buddy Atkins Campaign. Atkins, by his own admission, dated Linda Stewart in high school, served as best man at her wedding to her current husband, Bebo, and voted for her in the 2006 election. People with direct knowledge of Atkins’ relationship with the Stewarts suggest they were dining buddies until he decided to run for her seat. Some political observers believe that Atkins’ candidacy is a farce to split the anti-Stewart vote to ensure her victory.
In capsulation, here is the summary of information Citizens for Better Government, L.L.C. has gathered:
- Linda Stewart’s Democrat District #4 challenger, Egor Emory, personally assisted her in gathering enough election cards to just barely qualify with minutes to go before the deadline.
- Republican District #2 candidate, David Yeager, worked with his competitor, Commissioner Elaine Renick, in gathering election cards for District #4 candidate Linda Stewart.
- Bill Smalley has been an announced Democrat candidate for the District #4 race since mid-2009; and, according to Smalley, was promised support by local leadership. Pictures and information on the Democrat website support that notion. His support was abruptly stopped when Stewart entered the race.
- Democrat, Egor Emory, received assistance by Lake Democrat Chairperson, Nancy Hurlbert, and others to secure a place on the ballot while at the same time, like assistance was not offered to Smalley. Smalley says an email was floated to committee members orchestrating the scheme.
- Democrat Chairperson, Nancy Hurlbert, and other prominent Democrats have been placed on important committees by Commissioners Stewart and Renick.
- Prominent Democrats have told Smalley up front that they are supporting Linda Stewart for Commission and plan to vote for her. The only way they can vote for Stewart is by party switching at primary time.
- Smalley is filing a grievance with the State Democrat Party for the possible violation of party rules governing primaries.
- Republican candidate, Buddy Atkins, has a personal relationship with the Stewarts that has not been fully vetted. Real questions exist as to his authenticity.
What does all of this mean? First and foremost, there’s no doubt an orchestrated attempt by zealots in the environmental movement and Democrat Party are doing everything they can to do to get Linda Stewart re-elected as County Commissioner. It appears the voters of Lake County are being played for suckers.
Secondly, it means the Republican Party in Lake County is being run by Democrats who are trying to orchestrate who will win their primaries. The Republican Party needs to investigate this matter and realize that the local Democrat leadership is being ruthless in their conduct. Just look at how Hurlbert is treating fellow Democrat Bill Smalley.
Next, if Bill Smalley is forced out of the Democrat primary, there will be a lot of party switching so Democrats can re-elect Linda Stewart. For Republicans, the key to bust up this Democrat scheme in order for honest elections to be held is for Bill Smalley to remain in the race to challenge Egor Emory.
Finally, when Linda Stewart and Elaine Renick were elected in 2006, they both campaigned on transparency, honesty, and integrity. In our view, each one has broken these promises. We call for honest, non-manipulated elections and let the votes determine who the next commissioners will be.
The race for Lake County Commission District #4 has a foul stench emanating from it and the voters need to ask tough questions. Don’t accept answers when the facts point to a different narrative – instead ask, “Why?” Demand answers instead of being told to accept flimsy excuses – don’t be a sucker!
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Mr. Smalley’s stance and accusations are reckless and ridiculous.
If Mr. Smalley wants to be a serious candidate why on earth would he depend on the Democrat Party to secure his election cards? If he’s a serious candidate, it’s HIS responsibility. Quite honestly, this sounds like a great deal of sour grapes on Mr. Smalley’s part. I understand what the future implication might be, but that doesn’t give Mr. Smalley a reprieve on basic responsibilities as a political candidate.
Now, the possible shenanigans that you’ve reported on on the Republican side are troubling to me if proved true. There’s no doubt in my mind that Lake County is better served WITHOUT Linda Stewart and Elaine Rennick on the County Commission.
Sounds like Mr. Smalley is just desperate. He can’t even get support from his own party. Well don’t come crawling to the republicans because we don’t want you either. In fact, I am suprised this site would even give him the time of day.
Democrats don’t want Smalley for the same reason Republicans shouldn’t want him either. I was at a Mt. Plymouth/Sorrento meeting where I and many other people heard his conversation with commissioner Stewart. She told him he needed to stop lying to the people in the area about the proposed location of SR 46A. He told her that lying was part of the game and if she didn’t like the lying she should get out of politics. Apparently, lying is part of his MO.This is not the comments anyone would want to hear out of a candidate, republican or democrat. Speaking of him lying, you wouldn’t believe how often Smalley files false ethics charges against politicians he doesn’t like. Guess how many charges went anywhere…zero.
I know there have got to be hundreds of good, honest, upstanding people in Lake County have observed during the past several years an astonishing and scary turn of events: Way more often than not our, no THE Board of County Commissioners, with the exceptions a a few time by Jennifer Hill, have acted just as though Lake County was Washington, D.C. and they adopted regulation after regulation, with the money grabbing fees, to take away more and more property rights and have killed business es left and right. Now we have heavy unemployment and prosperty has been e\destroyed just like with the Omama Administration and the Democrats who can only be purposely out to destroy the country. (And they are suceeding).
Our present county attorney chose to let the MAJOR violations of the Florida Sunshine Law by this group of County Commissioners, with I suppose an exception of maybe one commissioner who seems to have been purposely left out of their loop (Who knows for sure without the benefit of a full investigation stymied by the county Attorney and Local District Attorney.) By the way, don’t we need a new county attornety as well. Incidentially for those that may not know Mr. Minkoff actually represents the commissioner interest, not the people’s best interest.
We have government at it’s worst and just wait to see the property tax ceetificate sales next year. How is the county going to pay, for example the bonds issued by Lake County and the Lake County School Board to build new schools when we already knew the enrollment was going to decline because of job losses. Who can afford to pay tax on their homes and the bonds recently issued ? We could be in for bond defalults as the county regulations and Impact Fees doom Lake County when other counties have dropped or lowered theirs because that’s how we coul and used to atract new industry. I don;t know about you but I am holding this group of commissioners respomsible for years oto come for the economic damage they have done for no good reason except they are zelot nuts and have no business sense or concern for the economic well being of our people. They all need to go and as does their propagandist, Lauren Ritchie, whom I call as the Most Devisive and Destructive Woman in the History of Lake County. Don’t all of you who get it agree?
David Yeager should spend more time working and raising money to pay his enormous outstanding tax bills instead of trying to get Linda Stewart elected. What a joke! This guy loses a mayoral race in Minneloa leaving it on the brink of financial ruin while he is out running for a political office that requires you to oversee the collection and prudent spending of tax dollars when he doesnt even pay his own taxes. We all know that the former Mayor likes to be the center of attention, but this borders on being plain ridiculous!