Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, July 25, 1995                   TAG: 9507250075
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

COURT CLERKS

Oh, yes, and every eight years, the people of the cities and counties of Virginia are asked to choose a circuit-court clerk.

You don't have to be a rocket scientist to see a fundamental difference - deeper than the mere fact that the last is a local post - between the first two offices and a circuit-court clerkship.

Heck, even an ink-stained wretch of the fourth estate can see it: Presidents and governors make broad policy of interest to every citizen. Circuit-court clerks do, well, clerical work.

Even so, the point seems to elude Michael M. Foreman, clerk of the circuit court in Winchester and a past president of the Virginia Court Clerks Association. In a response, published Monday, to a July 15 editorial, Foreman asked: "Could the writer [of the editorial] justify why we elect any administrator, such as a governor or president? After all, they don't make policy, they just administer."

Say again? Being a good administrator is far from the most significant of a president's or governor's duties. The important task, the basis on which they are elected and assessed, is how well they lead the nation or state via effective and wise policy-making.

Presidents must decide questions of war and peace, of fiscal policy, of Supreme Court appointments, and of a host of other matters. Governors must make policy on items ranging from criminal sentencing to school funding.

When was the last time a genuine issue of any public significance arose in a race for circuit-court clerk? We can't remember.

This is not to demean the work they do. Circuit-court clerks perform a valuable and necessary job. The point is: It isn't a policy-making office best filled by popular election.