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Manes named GOP JP candidate

By PHILLIP WILLIAMS
Wyone Manes, the losing Democratic Party candidate for Upshur County Pct. 1 justice of the peace only two years ago, was named Monday as the Republican Party’s candidate in a special November election for the post.

A 3-member Republican nomination committee unanimously picked Ms. Manes, 55, over Laura Norred, 37. The committee heard public statements from both women, then interviewed them separately in a 42-minute closed session at the county courthouse before taking the vote.

The Nov. 4 special election became necessary when Tim Cariker, a Republican who defeated Ms. Manes in 2006, resigned effective May 31 amid allegations that he misused his county office’s staff to do typing work for his private law practice. Ms. Manes will face a yet-unnamed Democrat for the remaining portion of Cariker’s 4-year term.

Upshur County Com-missioners Court on May 30 named H. Deloyd Bailey to the justice of the peace post, effective June 1, with the understanding he wouldn’t seek election to it. Whoever is elected in November to the nearly 26 months that will remain on Cariker’s term will take office right after votes are canvassed.

Since Cariker submitted his resignation after the March 4 party primaries, committees from Upshur County’s Republican and Democratic parties are nominating the parties’ respective candidates for the special election. County Democratic chairman Jim Eitel said recently the Democratic committee would meet July 3. He said they have five potential candidates to consider.

After Monday’s closed session, the GOP committee chose Ms. Manes by secret ballot in open session. Committee chairman Jesse Loffer, asked by The Mirror to reveal the numerical split of the vote, said it was 3-0.

Ms. Manes is former longtime court clerk of the Pct. 1 JP court, where Ms. Norred currently works. Nominating committee member Madaline Barber said she voted for Ms. Manes because she “has a little more experience” than Ms. Norred by having introduced installment payments for fines in both Upshur and Gregg counties.

Mrs. Barber, who made her comments during Monday’s meeting, said Ms. Manes had “shown what she can do for the counties—our county and Gregg County.”

She also said she thought Ms. Manes and Ms. Norred “complement each other,” and that their working together would create “a wonderful office.”

Loffer said choosing between “two very good candidates” wasn’t easy. He declared Ms. Manes would be “an excellent justice of the peace.”

The other committee member, Lanette Crittenden, offered no comment on why she voted for Ms. Manes. Mrs. Crittenden is the wife of Pct. 1 County Commissioner James Crittenden. The three members of the nomination committee are GOP precinct chairpersons in Pct. 1, and are on the county’s Republican executive committee.

After the meeting, Ms. Manes told reporters she had converted to the GOP from the Democratic Party because “the people that I met (while campaigning in 2006) were Republicans,” and because the precinct is predominantly Republican.

On Tuesday, she modified her remarks, saying “I just didn’t have the knowledge of the difference in the parties” when she ran in 2006.

Ms. Manes said she was the Pct. 1 JP office’s court clerk for 10 years—two under then-Judge Wanda Coston and eight under Cariker’s predecessor, Arnold Grimes. Ms. Manes said she then worked about a year and a half in Gregg County’s collections office, resigning effective May 24 to pursue the JP position.

Addressing the committee during the open session, Ms. Manes said, “I initiated a lot of the time payment plans” for fines, based on her special schooling for her work.

“Under Judge Grimes, we all (office workers) had to do the job...I knew civil (work). I knew traffic,” Ms. Manes said. She said she additionally did the death certificates for one justice of the peace’s death calls.

Ms. Norred told the committee she had worked under Pct. 2 Justice of the Peace Lyle Potter (1997 to 2000), then in the Pct. 1 office (2005 to the present). She stressed that she was “fluent in Spanish,” saying that many persons who come to the JP court can’t communicate in English.

She also said she had attended justice court training schools, had done a “lot of legal paperwork,” and “I know the (office’s) work.”

“I believe I can help the community,” Ms. Norred told the committee.

Republican Party of Upshur County Chairwoman Brenda Patterson, who was recently elected to the State Republican Executive Committee, attended Monday’s meeting and sat in on the closed session, but had no vote in choosing the nominee. Precinct One encompasses six voting boxes: Diana, Glenwood, East Mountain, Union Grove, West Mountain, and southeast Gilmer. The Pct. 1 justice of the peace’s office is housed in the county “Rock Building” in Gilmer.

Its former occupant, Cariker, would have faced potential criminal charges had he not resigned, said Upshur County District Attorney Billy Byrd. Days before his resignation took effect, Cariker reimbursed the county $2,000 for labor, paper, and other costs arising from using his staff for his law practice, the district attorney said.

However, Byrd said he didn’t think Cariker, a former assistant district attorney, had any “intent to steal.”

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