Editor, Smithfield Times

I have been a prosecutor in Isle of Wight and Southampton/Franklin for over 15 years. During that time I have worked with prosecutors of the highest integrity. Wayne Farmer, Eric Cook and Dick Grizzard all placed honesty and integrity above winning. Georgette Phillips has that same sense of honor. I asked Georgette Phillips to seek election as Commonwealth Attorney instead of running myself because, after working with her for years, I knew that she would do the job better than me.

I have seen her deep in the woods with investigators looking for evidence in a murder case, watched her piece together mounds of financial and phone records to help build cases, and have watched how closely she and Sheriff Mark Marshall have worked together.

I do not simply support her; I admire her. She has worked hard for everything that she has, putting herself through college and entering law school when she and her husband were expecting their second child in a month.

She is humble and unassuming. That should never be mistaken for weakness. I know the toll that it takes to listen to hundreds of hours of jail recordings from one who tortured and killed his own infant, and perhaps even worse, to closely scour pictures of those tortured babies looking for hints of evidence that would seal the case. She has borne that burden for years.

Georgette Phillips is more than a candidate. She is a role model, not just for every young women out there, but for every young person who believes that hard work is its own reward, that honors and titles are not worth seeking but that the opportunity to serve and help others is to be sought out at every turn in life, and that the essence of leadership is team work.

That is a big part of why the Isle of Wight Bar Association unanimously endorsed her, and why she has the passionate support of so many people.

Steve Edwards
Smithfield