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The Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections, Craig Latimer, has held his position for 12 years - long enough, certainly, for people to know his name. But he just wants to make sure…so he has gone overboard on self-promotion.
Latimer is under fire for having placed his name on just about every form of visible communication in the county: county vehicles, buildings, mailers, signs at voting locations, pens, and even shirts - all at taxpayer expense. That expense adds up to millions at the last estimate. The bill for pens alone is over $300k on the last order, which came out of his SOE budget.
This is, of course, an election year, so all of this can easily be seen as campaign expense, coming, which just happens to be coming out of taxpayer dollars. Everyone in the county already knows who is their SOE. They do not need their tax dollars spent to remind them..
His challenger in the November election, Billy Christensen, is a seasoned government intelligence professional, and believes, I think rightfully so, that Mr. Latimer is not being very intelligent with use of his taxpayer’s money. His self-serving expenditures have cost the taxpayers of Hillsborough County too much of their hard-earned cash, especially in this inflationary period.
ALSO, Mr. Latimer was the recipient of a $2.9 million grant from Mark Zuckerberg in 2020, and refuses to give accounting for how that money was spent. The population of Hillsborough County was, at the time, approximately 1.4 million.
Take your choice of explanations, Mr. Latimer. Your constituents have the right to know. As long as you keep it as secret, they will, of course, think the worst.
Another investigation has left Craig Latimer without his tongue - that regarding the security breach of the personal data of over 58,000 Hillsborough County residents, including Soc. Sec., Medicare and drivers’ license numbers, in April-May, 2023. NONE of the residents has received any assistance with this from Latimer’s office. He says it is still under investigation. Just Bull! How many of his citizens have had their credit cards used, their home titles stolen, or possibly even their own cars taken out of their driveways, never to return? He clearly does not care.
If Latimer were MY “public servant”, I would be angry and disgusted. Hillsborough County residents, regardless of party, have the right to feel the same.
The County Commission chastised Latimer in March, 2024, by removing $200k from his budget for his removing over 100,000 voters from the rolls. Each voter was only worth two bucks?
Then came the taxpayer-funded billboards featuring HIS name, just in time to “give information” before the 2024 election period.
Word is, the community is increasingly questioning his leadership, ethics and spending practices. They should. As the November 2024 election approaches, residents of Hillsborough County should keep their wallets close and their eyes on the incumbent.
Time for a change of signs AND SOE’s, I’d say. Hillsborough County is NOT, “Craig Latimer Town”