Voters in next month’s Republican primary will adjudicate between two seasoned civil servants who are making their electoral debuts as candidates for Alamance County’s clerk of superior court.
This particular match-up pits Kristie Miller Culler, a long-time employee of the clerk’s office who was elevated to the clerkship just over a year ago, against Steve McGilvray, a retired member of Graham’s police force who now serves as a magistrate for the local court system.
Although neither McGilvray nor Culler has previously sought elected office, they each bring more than three decades of professional experience to the race for the clerk’s post. Their struggle, which will culminate with the GOP’s primary on March 3, will effectively determine who holds his position for the next four years in the absence of any Democratic or independent contender in this fall’s general election.
The professional backgrounds of these two political tyros is just one of the factors that primary voters will be able to weigh when they cast their ballots on March 3. In order to provide additional points of comparison, The Alamance News has sent both Culler and McGilvray that issues questionnaire that delves into various matters germane to the operations of the clerk’s office.
In their responses to the newspaper’s questions, the two candidates hit on many of the same themes to demonstrate their credentials to primary voters. They both stressed their professional experience, for instance, when explicitly asked what qualifies them to serve over their electoral opponent.
McGilvray, for one, touted his “36 years serving within criminal justice system,” which he said has seen him go “from writing citations [and] investigating homicides” to his current role as a magistrate judge – with much of his career “spent leading [and] managing personnel.”
Culler, by the same token, emphasized her “more than 30 years in the legal field and over 15 years in the clerk of superior court’s office.
“I bring deep institutional knowledge, proven leadership, and hands-on courtroom experience,” added the incumbent clerk, who was appointed to this position when her predecessor Meredith Tuck Edwards won a seat on the district court bench in 2024. “I understand the law, the people we serve, and how to run an efficient, accountable office.”
The two candidates nevertheless offer rather different replies when asked if they’d ever close a legal proceeding notwithstanding a state constitutional mandate that “all courts shall be open.”
Culler acknowledged that, under state statute, adoption hearings and some incompetency proceedings can be closed to the public. McGilvray, meanwhile, proffered a much broader set of circumstances that would compel him to set the constitutional mandate aside. He acknowledged his inclination to exclude the pubic when “an overriding interest” like a “defendant’s right to a fair trial [or] the sensitivity of information…outweighs the public’s right of access.”
Culler also revealed a much more constrained sense of the clerk’s role in matters like child support enforcement and the distribution of financial restitution to victims. While McGilvray spoke of “aggressively docketing judgments” for restitution and the “immediate issuance of show cause orders” when child support isn’t paid, Culler saw far less room for discretion from the clerk of superior court.
“Our role is limited to accurate recordkeeping and timely disbursement to victims,” she said when addressing the payment of restitution. “The clerk receives and records child support payments, maintains those records, and distributes funds as ordered,” she added in regard to the other issue. “The clerk does not collect or enforce child support.”
Each candidate’s full responses to the newspaper’s questionnaire HERE, while biographical details can be found here: https://alamancenews.com/meet-the-candidates-for-clerk-of-court/
