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Chesapeake — Commonwealth’s Attorney Nancy Parr, who has served as Chesapeake’s top prosecutor for 16 years, will not run for re-election this year.
Parr was first elected as commonwealth’s attorney in 2005 and was re-elected three times. In an email Friday, Parr said she began thinking months ago about whether or not she’d run for a fifth term. Ultimately she told her office in February that she wouldn’t seek the job.
“I have mixed emotions about my decision to not seek re-election,” Parr wrote. “I am ready to slow down and perhaps do something else. I do not have plans and I am excited about paths that may open. I am proud of my office and will miss them tremendously. I, along with my attorneys and support staff, have started community outreach programs and have developed good relationships within the city and throughout Virginia.”
Parr has been a prosecutor for 37 years, first in Suffolk, then in Chesapeake. She has served as president of the National District Attorneys Association and also sat on the 16-member President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice.
Parr, who ran as a Republican, said she is not leaving office early and will carry out the remainder of her term, which ends Dec. 31.
City Councilman Matt Hamel is the only candidate who filed by Thursday’s deadline to run in the June 8 Republican primary for commonwealth’s attorney, according to the Chesapeake Voter Registrar’s Office. Democrats aren’t having a primary, but could choose a candidate for the November ballot in an internal caucus, said that party’s chairman, David Washington.
Hamel, a Navy reservist who founded a local law firm, said he’s running for the job to ensure the city is safe. He was elected to the City Council in 2018.
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“I would be honored to continue to serve if given the opportunity,” Hamel said.
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He said he has a “breadth of experience” for the job: He served as a Navy prosecutor and has worked in criminal defense and family law. Hamel, who joined the Navy after Sept. 11, 2001, deployed to Iraq and served inside a prison in Baghdad, establishing a parole-style review board.
He and his family have lived in Chesapeake for about 15 years. His law firm focuses on military service members and spouses in domestic and criminal cases.
Washington, the Democratic Party leader, said two people recently approached him with interest in running for commonwealth’s attorney and commissioner of the revenue as Democrats, but there wasn’t enough time to get materials together ahead of the primary submission deadline. He declined to name the people to allow them to plan their own announcements.
Washington said he was waiting for guidance from the state party on how and when the local party could hold a caucus. If that happens, more contenders could emerge.
Margaret Matray, 757-222-5216, margaret.matray@pilotonline.com
Josh Reyes, 757-247-4692, joreyes@dailypress.com