Verbage-Spence re-enters magistrate race

HUNTINGTON — Patty Verbage-Spence says she will seek re-election.

The two-term magistrate retired March 31, amid serious health concerns and questions about her competency. She publicly withdrew from the race at that time, but her plans changed this week when she won the Democratic Party’s nomination.

“I will be going forward,” she said. “I will be running in November. If I win, then I will be starting out in January as a new magistrate.”

Verbage-Spence announced her plans during a telephone interview Thursday with The Herald-Dispatch. She received the seventh-highest number of votes Tuesday. She garnered support from 4,591 voters. That equaled 6.15 percent of the vote, and it was enough to move her campaign forward.

Verbage-Spence was admitted to the hospital in March. Doctors determined 65 percent of her heart was inoperative, according to her attorney R. Lee Booten. The diagnosis came two weeks after the county's circuit judges questioned her competency and asked her in a letter to step down. The circuit informed her removal proceedings would commence if she refused.

The candidate had no comment Thursday regarding the letter, her competency or the judges’ allegations.

“I don’t want to answer these questions,” she said. “That’s all in the past. That’s why I’m going forward. I feel better. The doctors have got everything under control ... The rest is all in the past.”

Verbage-Spence said doctors believe her heart was closer to 50 percent operative. She said it operates close to normal with medication.

“I’m not short of breath anymore,” she said.

Verbage-Spence did no campaigning during the primary.

Cabell County Clerk Karen Cole said Verbage-Spence publicly dropped out of the race, but never filed formal paperwork to do so. Her announcement came too late for her name to be removed from the primary ballot. If she would have officially withdrawn from the race, Cole said the Democratic Party leaders would be able to nominate another candidate before November.

On Wednesday, Chief Circuit Judge Alfred Ferguson said the circuit’s four judges have not discussed their response to Verbage-Spence’s victory.

Check back for more on this developing story.