'Resign or drop out of race'

That is the choice Democrat Jim Piccillo is giving Richard Nugent, his newly minted opponent, in a sternly written letter sent to the sheriff Wednesday.

Piccillo wrote Nugent has "unfinished business and promises to fulfill" as sheriff and cannot devote his entire time to his duties while running for Florida's 5th District Congressional seat.

"The people of Hernando County deserve a full-time public servant who is dedicated to the job," wrote Piccillo, who lives in Land O' Lakes.

Nugent, commenting from Washington, D.C., where he was just boarding a plane back to Hernando County, said he has not seen the letter and wouldn't respond to his comments anyway.

Nugent also said his campaigning would not detract from his budget duties or discussions with the county about possibly bidding on the jail contract. He said recently he did not intend to leave county commissioners in the lurch since CCA opted out of its contract.

Jason Sager, the only Republican challenging Nugent in the August primary, said it's up to the sheriff to make the decision to step down.

However, Sager does not believe Nugent can juggle running a campaign and performing the duties of a full-time sheriff at the same time.

From the article:

Nugent, commenting from Washington, D.C., where he was just boarding a plane back to Hernando County, said he has not seen the letter and wouldn't respond to his comments anyway.

This is a very telling quote from the story.

This man is the Sheriff of Hernando County. He's running for Congress as Ginny's "chosen successor." The first thing he does as a candidate is get on a plane to Washington DC. And he says he hasn't seen a letter from a potential constituent who lives in the district he's running to represent, but he says he won't respond to his comments anyway.

These people believe that they get to choose their successors. Nugent is already trying to fit in up in Washington DC. He is the candidate who represents everything that is wrong with the elite "inside the beltway" Republicans (including Ginny).

To make matters worse, his handling of the jail situation here in Hernando county (and to some extent the commissioners' handling of this crisis) has resulted in CCA, the private contractor that operates the jail, terminating the contract with 120 days notice. Two days before Sheriff Nugent received his "calling" to go to Congress, CCA sent the termination. Two days after the August 24th Primary, CCA will be handing the keys to the jail over to the county, the Sheriff's department, or whoever the county gets a new contract with to run the jail.

He's going to be very busy over this summer. I also don't see any way he can pull off campaigning and being Sheriff. IMO, the commission here needs to demand his resignation, or that he dedicate himself full time to being sheriff. I hate to agree with a Democrat candidate on anything, but in this case, Piccillo is correct.

From the desk of cc2k:		Candidates I support in 2010: Jason Sager for Congress, FL 5th, Doug Hoffman for Congress, NY 23rd, David Harmer for Congress, CA 10th (website for info), Marco Rubio for Senate, FL

Full disclosure: I am involved in the Sager for Congress campaign, and my company is designing and hosting his web site.

Secret Agent Man wrote:

All the time democrats run for other offices and don’t resign their current positions. John Kerry for one. Denis Kucineck (sp?), Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton.

Excellent point. Richard Nugent is showing the has the conservative principles and convictions of Dennis Kucinich and John Kerry.

While this might excuse his actions with some, I am looking for a candidate with more solid principles and convictions. That means someone who lives up to their word an does the best job that they can for the position they have been elected to.

There are also some extenuating circumstances in this particular case. Sheriff Nugent has been seeking to expand his budget by taking over the jail in Hernando county. It has been run by a private contractor since it was built over 20 years ago. The jail is in disrepair. Nugent blames the contractor for not maintaining the place, but his department, as well as some other county officials, have a duty and a job to oversee the operation. They allowed the contractor to be negligent and kept paying them anyway as the jail fell into disrepair.

2 days before this stunt with Ginny put Nugent in the 5th district race, CCA, the contractor that is running the jail now, gave 120 days notice of termination of their contract.

I don't believe the County Commission has decided whether they will look for another contractor to run the jail, or turn it over to Sheriff Nugent. Sheriff Nugent has been operating on the assumption that his department will take over operations at the jail. Having a Sheriff who is only working part time and has his mind on other things (like a congressional election campaign in a geographically large district) might factor into the decision and the direction that goes.

Either way, there's a lot of work for the sheriff to take care of surrounding the jail.

From the desk of
cc2k:

Candidates I support in 2010: Jason Sager for Congress, FL 5th, Doug Hoffman for Congress, NY 23rd, David Harmer for Congress, CA 10th (website for info), Marco Rubio for Senate, FL

Full disclosure: I am involved in the Sager for Congress campaign, and my company is designing and hosting his web site.

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