Suffolk News-Herald

The race is on for the seat of Clerk of the Court with seven candidates filing with the Registrar of Voting, Patsy Parker.

Parker said that all candidates had their paperwork submitted by the 7 p.m. deadline, Tuesday, including one newcomer, Tony Michael Brown of Hargrove Landing.

One lone petitioner, a &uot;Mr. Saunders,&uot; first name unknown, had picked up forms but not submitted them by the deadline.

As it stands, the other candidates are: Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney W. Randolph Carter Jr.; Barbara Xenakis Gayle, an assistant to Portsmouth’s chief deputy Commonwealth’s attorney; Johnnie F. Edwards, an assistant principal at S.P. Morton Middle School in Franklin; T. Kirk Pretlow, of Pretlow and Pretlow P.C.; Robert E. Nelms, a former delegate of the 76th District; and Clinton L. Jenkins, a crisis stabilization worker at Western Tidewater Mental Health Center and a graduate student at Regent University.

The Nov. 4 election will see Court Clerk Henry C. Murden retire after dedicating 51 years of his life to public service. Murden, 83, was a former reporter for the Suffolk News-Herald.