Aging beauty queen

The Government Gone Wild organizer is on his soap box again, hoping we will jump on board his propaganda train. His newest stunt is to target the re-election campaign's of Chris Kinglsey and Diane Rowden. It must be noted that he selectively excluded Jeff Stabins in his latest round of campaign attacks without explanation. Everyone should remember his public pledge to oust all of these three commissioners at last year's budget hearings.

To be fair, I listened to the entire 22-minute video Mr. Ingoglia has posted online. This video spent approximately 19 minutes underscoring Mr. Ingoglia's performance at the 2007 budget hearings. The information in the first 19 minutes of this video was outdated, and did not reflect the current economic climate in the Hernando County. The remaining three minutes in this video, Ingoglia laid out his plan to oust Chris Kingsley and Diane Rowden.

Mr. Ingoglia used a list of critical headlines from local newspapers to attempt to make the point county commissioners had not done their job. An example of these headlines mentioned in his video included items like the previous racial problems within the Hernando County Utility Department, and the dumping of raw sewage by their workers. He placed the blame squarely on the shoulders of the county commissioners, even though this is the function of the county administrator. Mr. Ingoglia implied in his video that the county commissioners should have micromanaged the county administrator to solve local problems. Mr. Ingoglia failed to give the county commissioners credit for hiring David Hamilton who has tackled each of the "headline issues" swiftly and in a timely fashion. To be fair, Ingoglia made one fleeting reference to Mr. Hamilton is a positive tone.

Dan DeWitt's column in yesterday's Hernando Times tied up many loose ends for the public about Mr. Ingoglia. Mr. DeWitt said that even though Ingoglia had a valid point about tax reduction in 2007, he barely mentioned the tax reductions of the past two budget cycles and the current economic climate in Hernando County. Mr. DeWitt's most revealing comments included the relationship between Ingoglia, the chairwoman of the Republican Executive Committee Ana Trinque and state Rep. Robert Schenck through the Novo Group. From Mr. DeWitt's perspective, it appears that he believes Ingoglia, Trinque and Schenck are tied at the hip with their real estate ventures.

This ad campaign by Ingoglia is reminiscent of the "aging beauty queen syndrome". It seems that Mr. Ingoglia cannot fathom public life going on without him in Hernando County. Like the aging beauty queen, his glory days are long past...