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Politics

Rules are rules, candidate says

She insists she was cheated out of honorary office.

By ERIN SULLIVAN
Published November 26, 2006

Rene Van Hout said her dad was a drunken bum who left when she was 6 months old. Her mother died while drinking and driving when she was 8.

Her grandparents raised her in Tampa, preaching ethics and morals. She made it her goal to know that when she dies, she's going to heaven - "with my angel wings," she said.

She wanted to be so unlike her parents that she became a zealot for rules and order.

That's why she just can't let this honorary mayor thing go.

Van Hout ran a campaign to be honorary mayor of Land O'Lakes, the title awarded to the person who raises the most money for the Chamber of Commerce each year.

Van Hout had a campaign team. She had a mission statement. She held a dozen or so fundraisers. She raised $4,000.

She lost.

$1,000 on the last day called into question

Van Hout's opponent, Chip Crouse, raised nearly $4,200 - $1,000 of which came in cash Nov. 3, the last day of the race.

Van Hout thinks Crouse cheated.

You see, Van Hout was given a list of campaign rules to follow. One said candidates couldn't accept more than $100 from one person at a time.

Van Hout asked the chamber leaders to look into her suspicion about the cash donation, among others. Some business owners barraged the organization with e-mails, questioning the results.

"If the chamber had a set of rules and those rules were violated or broken in any way, that's not fair," said Gary Jessup, vice president of sales and marketing at Creative Business Solutions.

He has known Van Hout about a year and said she is diligent and hardworking. He wrote the chamber an e-mail.

"I am sorry, but this issue is not going to go away because you ignore it," he wrote. "This must be dealt with in a professional manner. The integrity of the entire chamber is at stake here."

Crouse didn't return calls Monday for this story.

Van Hout called the rumblings a "scarlet letter" on the honorary mayor's race.

"They act as though I'm the only who had a problem with the outcome, that I'm just a sore loser," Van Hout said.

"I'm not the one who has a problem. It's the members who have a problem."

Chamber: 'Let's stop the sour grapes'

Chamber leaders talked with the man who gave Crouse the money - Ben Pumo of Benedetto's. He said the money came from fundraisers for Crouse held at the restaurant.

He gave cash because he wasn't sure a check would clear in time.

"We felt that the rules had been complied with," said Tim Hayes, a lawyer and a member of the chamber's board.

"I had hoped that if there were legitimate concerns, that they would be reviewed and reported back to Van Hout, and that would be the end of it," Hayes said. "That has not been the case."

It became such a hullabaloo that the chamber held an emergency special meeting Nov. 13.

The members drafted a two-page letter to "publicly respond to unfounded accusations regarding the results of this year's Land O'Lakes Honorary Mayor's Race," which was sent out to chamber members.

"The board of directors believes that the chamber has attempted in good faith to address each and every one of Van Hout's concerns and discuss them with her, but for whatever reason, Van Hout seems unwilling to accept the results," the letter states.

The letter also says: "Crouse, our new 'mayor,' was our winner, and he won the race fair and square. Let's stop the sour grapes and accept the outcome."

Terry Moses, chairman of the board, said the whole mess is terrible.

"We've never had this kind of problem," Moses said.

The race "is taken all in good fun. Everybody laughs about it. It's no big deal."

Van Hout said she knows it's all for fun. But rules are rules. And she just feels like some were broken.

Erin Sullivan can be reached at (813) 909-4609 or esullivan@sptimes.com

[Last modified November 25, 2006, 10:35:18]