Tobacco Avenue

Richmond City Council President Bill Pantele entered the race for mayor yesterday, announcing his intentions to change the city for the better and making sure residents know how to correctly pronounce his last name.

“We’re going to fulfill the promise of Richmond together, and we’re going to do it right,”  Pantele told supporters gathered downtown.  

“And, just so everyone’s got it down, the last name is PAN-tuh-lee, not Pan-teel or Pant-A-eel,” he said. ”Like tele-phone, or, no, wait, that ‘tele’ is a little more like ‘tela,’ whereas the ‘tele’ in my name is more ‘telly’-sounding.”

“It’s Irish, I think, but not certain because we’re the only Panteles I know of,” he added, sighing.  “Or maybe plural is Panteli.”

Pantele’s last-name clarification follows another personal explanation by mayor candidate Donnie Corker, who last week told city residents that, in his free time, he dresses up and sings in women’s clothing as a character called Dirtwoman, a name he was given in 1976 after being arrested for prostitution and defecating on the back seat of a police car.