Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, January 14, 1992 TAG: 9201140344
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
JUDGE EMICK?
WHEN FINCASTLE'S Dudley "Buzz" Emick announced last May that he would not seek re-election to the state Senate, he said he was giving up politics. He said nothing about giving up public service.He is now bidding for appointment as a judge at the State Corporation Commission. We hope he gets it.
Admittedly, there's a degree of parochial interest in backing Emick for the appointment by his former legislative colleagues. No one from Western Virginia has served on the SCC's three-member judicial panel since 1972. Wide-ranging decisions handed down in the SCC courtroom might benefit from a broader geographical perspective.
More important is that Emick, fresh from nearly two decades of service in the General Assembly, would bring to the process an insider's knowledge of state issues - as well as his trademark independent streak and egalitarian impulse.
In Virginia, there are few areas of business and commerce that fall outside the regulatory purview of the SCC. Its decisions touch the lives and pocketbooks of all who use electricity, natural gas and telephones; who rely on services of railroads and big trucks, buses and taxis; who are customers of banks, savings-and-loan institutions, mortgage brokers, credit unions, investment advisers and insurance companies. No other state has assigned so much regulatory authority to a single agency.
During his legislative career, Emick won a reputation as a thorn in the side of the power structure - particularly moneyed interests that he felt were able to bend policy to the detriment of the public. When he saw it happening, he didn't hesitate to point it out.
The SCC, to its credit, has come a long way from the days in the early '70s when it was perceived as an anti-consumer arm of Virginia's business establishment. (Remember the bumper-sticker - "Owned and operated by VEPCO"?) Even so, it could still use the kind of experience and outlook that Emick would bring to the bench. He presumably could be counted on - in the words of the SCC's one-time famous adversary Henry Howell - to "keep the big boys honest."