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By PHILLIP WILLIAMS
Special Correspondent

GILMER — A four-member Democratic Party committee Thursday unanimously chose Michele Griffith as the party’s nominee for Upshur County Precinct 1 justice of the peace in a special Nov. 4 election.

Mrs. Griffith, 38, of Diana community, is chief deputy clerk for the Precinct 2 justice of the peace office, where she has worked nearly six years. She was among five applicants for the nomination, four of whom were interviewed by the committee Thursday in the presence of a representative of the Tyler Morning Telegraph.

After the interviews, the committee nominated her in a 20-minute private session. The panel included county Democratic Party Chairman Jim Eitel and Democratic precinct election judges from three of the six voting boxes in Precinct 1.

Mrs. Griffith was selected because of her knowledge of the job, said committee members Pam Penn and Pam Hogue.

Eitel said he was “thrilled to have this many candidates (for the nomination) ... I didn’t know if we’d have any.”

Committee member Tom Mitchell said the vote was unanimous. Other candidates were George (Lon) Cox, Ray Stroman, Ken Stephens (who lost the race for the party’s nomination for the Precinct 1 post in 2006) and Paula Gentry.

Eitel announced Mrs. Griffith’s nomination Thursday afternoon at Democratic Headquarters in downtown Gilmer immediately after the committee concluded its meeting there.

Mrs. Griffith will face Republican Wyone Manes, who was the unsuccessful Democratic Party nominee for Precinct 1 justice of the peace in 2006. A three-member committee from the county’s Republican Party recently nominated Ms. Manes, a former clerk in the Precinct 1 court.

The women are vying for the unexpired term of Republican Tim Cariker, who resigned May 31 rather than face potential criminal charges. Cariker allegedly used his county office staff to do work for his private law practice, and reimbursed the county $2,000, according to Upshur County District Attorney Billy Byrd.

Now 55, Ms. Manes lost the November 2006 general election to Cariker, who served only 18 months of his four-year term. Winner of the special election will be elected for the nearly 26 months remaining on the term, and will take office as soon as votes are canvassed rather than waiting till January.

County commissioners on May 30 appointed H. Deloyd Bailey as interim Precinct 1 justice of the peace with the understanding he would not seek election to the office. He assumed duties June 1.

In her interview Friday, Mrs. Griffith said she would “have compassion” and “be fair and impartial” to those who come to her court. “There won’t be fits pulled,” she said.

Asked if she would have set hours, she replied that Upshur justices of the peace are on call 24 hours a day, five days weekly, and one weekend monthly. She said hours would “never be a problem.”

One duty of justices of the peace is pronouncing auto accident victims dead at the scene. Asked by Ms. Penn how seeing a “mangled dead body” would affect her, Mrs. Griffith said her boss (Precinct 2 Justice of the Peace Lyle Potter) had taken her to witness an autopsy as “I wanted to see if I could ... deal with that.”

“I can do my job,” said Mrs. Griffith, who was a certified educational teacher’s aide at New Diana ISD for three years before joining the Precinct 2 justice of the peace office in August 2002.

She told the Tyler Paper, “I am very, very proud” to receive the nomination. “I will work hard for the Democratic Party, and I will make them proud. We’ll have one winner, and that’ll be me.”