By By JOHN EBY / Dowagiac Daily News
CASSOPOLIS – Stacey A. Rentfrow's going to Disney World.
Win or lose in her race with Dale Blunier for Fourth District Court judge, Rentfrow and her husband, Jaime Sumners, decided to take their family to Florida to unwind after a grueling campaign.
Jaime is an officer with the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians Tribal Police. They have two sons, Jack and Carson.
Winning just makes the vacation beginning Thursday much sweeter.
With all of Cass County's precincts tallied, Rentfrow, of Marcellus, defeated Blunier, of Edwardsburg, 9,948-8,288, to succeed the retiring Paul Deats of Edwardsburg, who has been on the bench since 1979 – the year President-elect Barack Obama graduated from high school.
She carried Dowagiac, Blunier's former hometown, 907-876.
Rentfrow also captured Calvin Township, Howard, LaGrange, Marcellus (823-137), Mason, Milton (by one ballot, 540-539), Newberg (531-105), Penn, Porter 1 (773-375), Porter 2, Pokagon, Silver Creek and Volinia (369-102).
Blunier bested Rentfrow in Jefferson Township, his home turf of Ontwa Township 1 (520-266), Ontwa 2 (496-349), absentee voter counting board (446-244) and Wayne Township.
"She was solid in Ontwa even, in Dale's backyard," noted Bruce Campbell, elected water resources commissioner on the Republican ticket, 11,641-9,771 for Tony Catanzarite. "Her numbers were also good in Porter and Silver Creek."
"That's what Scott Teter said, I came out of nowhere," Rentfrow reacted at the 1899 courthouse late Tuesday night, referring to the former Cass County prosecutor she and Blunier defeated in the August primary to advance to the Nov. 4 runoff for the non-partisan judgeship.
"I held my own everywhere as far as I'm concerned," she allowed. "I worked hard and I kept a positive campaign. I worked hard with door-to-door, phone calls, mailings."
Judging by her margin of victory in Porter, which Teter won last summer, Rentfrow had to assume some of his supporters came over into her column.
"In April when I went to the Lincoln Day dinner, I remember talking to (Dowagiac Police) Chief (Tom) Atkinson about who was on my committee and it was high school friends," she laughed. "I don't have a whole lot of explanation except that I worked hard. Going into it I said, 'I'm sick of the presidential race,' so I wanted to keep my message simple, then sit down and shut up.' I wanted to try to be real. Those were my two premises."
By real, Rentfrow means, "I was more grassroots. I wasn't trying to do fancy endorsements, I was just trying to get one vote at a time. I didn't do robo-calls, I did actual phone calls."
In fact, if her campaign encountered a potential voter during call blitzes who had never heard of their candidate, they'd say, "Do you want to talk to her?" and Rentfrow would pop on the line herself to reinforce the personal contact.
"I think people who met Stacey liked her and told people about her," said LaGrange Township Treasurer Naomi Criswell.
"She met a lot of people at the county fair," Commissioner Johnie Rodebush, D-Howard Township, said.
"I didn't just sit behind a booth," Rentfrow agreed. "I've never politicked before, it was just me saying I've got to meet people, give them my message, keep it simple and don't make promises."
She has a brother in St. Joseph County, a sister in Van Buren County and a grandma just over the county line in St. Joseph County, "so I had few family members who could vote for me," said Rentfrow, who grew up in Jones in Newberg Township. Her dad and Commissioner Gordon Bickel went to a one-room school together near Union.
Rentfrow, who appeared before the Cass County Board of Commissioners June 5 before the August primary, returned Oct. 16 to remind she is the "only candidate with experience on both sides of the bench."
"I'm the only candidate who's been in a judicial position, sitting on the bench, issuing decisions and making rulings," Rentfrow said. "My desire, if I'm elected, is to search for programs that help assist and hold citizens of the county accountable, so we don't see them reoffending. Drug abuse. Substance abuse. If elected, I look forward to working with the sheriff's department, the prosecutor's office and community mental health."
Rentfrow's background includes Family Court referee, private practice attorney, trained mediator and citizen advocate with Legal Aid, from which she knows Criswell.
Rentfrow began her career with the Legal Aid Bureau of Southwestern Michigan, representing Cass County citizens in need.
"I believe I'm a great candidate based on that experience," she told commissioners. She made similar pitches before Dowagiac City Council.
As referee with Van Buren County Family Court, she dispatched decisions in as many as 100 hearings per week. She continues as an on-call mediator.
In private practice with the Laaksonen Law Office in Paw Paw, Rentfrow defends juveniles and adults in misdemeanor and felony cases and represents residents involving family law, real estate and other civil matters.
She was educated at Thomas Cooley Law School in Lansing.
Rentfrow has served almost 10 years on the board of Domestic and Sexual Abuse Services (DASAS), which serves Cass and St. Joseph counties from Three Rivers. She served a term as president.