BY BILL FREEHLING

Before yesterday, Harvey Latney had served more than 29 years as Caroline County's commonwealth's attorney without being challenged in an election.

In November, his re-election bid will be contested.

Tony Spencer, a former Richmond deputy commonwealth's attorney, filed paperwork yesterday to run against Latney in the Nov. 6 election. Spencer will run as an independent, Latney as a Democrat.

Spencer, 48, and his wife recently moved to Caroline County to raise a family. Spencer's parents have lived in Caroline full time since 1979, and Spencer spent summers there as a child.

Spencer was a deputy commonwealth's attorney in Richmond between 2002 and 2005. He prosecuted murders, robberies, drug dealing, white-collar crime and more. Since 2005 he has been a criminal defense lawyer, a job he also had before becoming a prosecutor.

If elected, Spencer has pledged to work six days a week in the Caroline commonwealth's attorney's office, assist investigators when crimes occur and personally return calls within 24 hours. He said he'll be speaking with Caroline residents to gather their input.

Latney, 62, will be doing some campaigning of his own to show voters he's the man for the job.

Latney was born and raised in Caroline. He took over the top prosecutor position in January 1978. Since then, the office has grown to include a victim-witness coordinator and an assistant prosecutor.

The Caroline commonwealth's attorney job remains a part-time position. Latney also has a private law practice in Richmond. But he said most of his time goes to the Caroline job, and he said he's proud of what he's accomplished there.

"I've given 30 years of dedicated service to the community," Latney said. "My record speaks for itself."