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Obituary

Ex-Pinellas GOP chairman dies

By CRAIG BASSE and MICHAEL SANDLER
Published March 18, 2005

LARGO - Ray R. Aden, a former chairman of the Pinellas County Republican Party and a prominent political figure for decades, has died at 84.

Mr. Aden, noted for his efforts to make politics more fair and ethical, died Monday (March 14, 2005) at Largo Medical Center.

Before he stepped down from the party's leadership in 1981, he created the Pinellas County Republican Ethics Committee to oversee campaign practices and tactics. In the early 1990s, Mr. Aden helped to form, with Democrats like former Democratic National Committeewoman Hazel Tally Evans, the Citizens for Fair Campaign Practices organization.

Richard T. Earle Jr., a prominent Republican lawyer, led the bipartisan group. Howard Lawrence, a former county Democratic Party chairman, agreed to serve on the executive board.

Mr. Aden and the others wanted to do something about political mudslinging. They asked Pinellas candidates to promise to run their campaigns honestly, without appeal to prejudice or "scurrilous" attacks, to refrain from distorting the facts.

Pinellas County Commission Chairman John Morroni recalled Thursday how effective the group proved to be when he was seeking re-election to the state House of Representatives in 1996. Morroni said an opponent released a political flier with false information about him. He filed a complaint with Mr. Aden's organization.

"Within 24 hours, I was in front of the board," Morroni said.

Commissioner Karen Seel said Mr. Aden and her father, former Clearwater City Commissioner Don Williams, were active together in the Republican Party during the 1970s and helped start the Ivory Club for people contributing more than $125, or $200 per couple.

After her father died in 1994, Mr. Aden continued to stay in touch.

"He would send Christmas cards and little notes saying how proud my dad would have been, and how proud he was, of me," Seel said. "He was a very gracious man."

Born in Eagle, Neb., and educated as a production engineer, Mr. Aden came to this area in the late 1960s from Kansas City, Kan., and soon showed political skills. He was elected vice chairman of the local Republican Executive Committee and was named chairman in 1976.

Mr. Aden called his 1976 election a victory for "the new faces" over "the old guard."

Seldom shy in taking positions, Mr. Aden frequently wrote letters to the editor of the St. Petersburg Times. In 1997, he sent a letter of a different kind to Bob Stewart, then County Commission chairman.

To register his opinion against an upcoming referendum to extend the 1-percent sales tax known as Penny for Pinellas, Mr. Aden taped to the letter a shiny new cent. "Enclosed you will find my Penny for Pinellas," Mr. Aden wrote. "I trust you will spend it wisely."

Stewart, a supporter of the 1-percent tax and a good sport, took the letter in stride.

Mr. Aden was a founding member of the Suncoast Tiger Bay Club.

Survivors include his wife of 61 years, Alice; a son; Dale W., Largo; a grandson, Dale W. Jr., Pinellas Park; a great-grandson, Alexander K., St. Petersburg; two nephews, Thomas Aden, Denton, Md., and John Fulton, Branson, Mo.; and two nieces, Jane Good and Jean Williams, both of Denton.

Moss-Feaster Funeral Homes and Cremation Services, Belcher Road Chapel, is in charge of arrangements.

[Last modified March 18, 2005, 00:42:17]