While six out of seven Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors seats are up for election this November, the Clerk of Circuit Court race is also important, because this constitutional officer is responsible for overseeing records, insuring their accuracy, and making them available for the county’s circuit court. That also means helping whoever comes into the clerk’s office, supporting its staff, and solving any issues that may arise. The honorable Mark W. Scarce is retiring as Clerk of Court and there are currently six people who are running as candidates for that position for the November election.
If I was going to vote based solely on someone’s experience working in the clerk’s office I would likely vote for Heidi L. Jones in November, as she is the only candidate with any work experience in that office, having served in it as a deputy clerk for the past seven years. However, I am supporting Jarrett Stone, at first, because I have known him since we were both kids. Out of all of the November candidates he has the longest tenure of any of them in service to Pittsylvania County, because he has just retired from a twenty year career in its Sheriff’s Department, with integrity and professionalism.
Mr. Stone is also running as a candidate for the Republican nomination to be chosen as the party’s Clerk of Circuit Court Candidate at this Friday’s mass meeting in Chatham. There are two other candidates running for this nomination and he is the only one of the three them who has his election campaign finance reports in perfect order. These filings are available from the Virginia State Board of Elections, and are a necessity for transparency in politics. One of the other candidates has their expenses correctly categorized, but mistakenly paid to themselves, and the other candidate has none of their expenses listed at all, although they must have spent money, as they have many signs up in the county for their campaign. In some of the Supervisors races there are also some candidates that are not putting the “authorized or paid for by such and such campaign” disclosure on the signs they have been putting up, although that’s not as important as the finance forms. People do make mistakes, and campaigning is new for most of these candidates, but when it comes to the Clerk of Court’s office, and filing of records, attention to detail and strict professionalism should be expected in this regard. So far, Mr. Stone has also run the hardest campaign, going door to door more than any other candidate throughout the entire county.
What also separates Jarrett Stone, from all of the other clerk candidates, in my view, is that he also has the most leadership experience of any of them, because he retired as a Sergeant in the Sheriff’s department where he held a supervisory position for fifteen out of his twenty years of service to it. This is important, because the Clerk of Court will be managing and overseeing a staff of people under them in order to run that office. Interest is growing in the nominating Republican Committee mass meeting this coming Friday. It is open to all Pittsylvania County registered voters on condition that they sign the required pledges at the meeting. You can find all the details here.
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-Mike
