THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, November 16, 1995 TAG: 9511150008
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Short : 50 lines
Why do Republicans keep winning citywide offices in Norfolk - commonwealth's attorney in 1992, sheriff in 1993, city clerk this month?
Staff writer Marc Davis recently posed that question to a number of Republicans and Democrats. To the surprise of no one, the Republicans told him their party won because it fielded the best candidates. Surprisingly, many Democrats agreed that lately Republican candidates for city offices have been superior to theirs.
The man most responsible for recruiting top Republican candidates in recent years is George Schaefer, Norfolk Republican chairman. ``I think there's something going on in the Democratic Party,'' he said, ``that we've been able to take advantage of. They're plugging people into positions for very bad reasons. . . . To just throw in people for favoritism or for some deal, I think the public rejects that.''
Jeffrey A. Breit, chairman of the 2nd District Democratic Committee, said, ``If the Democrats run bad candidates, they are going to lose elections. The party better look hard about running people who are in touch with the 1990s Norfolk.''
In the most recent Democratic fiasco, that party put up Randy Wright, a city councilman with no courthouse experience, for city clerk. Republicans countered with Albert Teich, a lawyer and former professor with 38 years' experience in the Norfolk courthouse. Teich won the courthouse job by a 17,459 to 12,093 vote.
Today, in a city where Democrats ruled for 130 years, Republicans hold three of the five constitutional offices. Only the treasurer and the revenue commissioners still are Democrats. All five citywide offices are primarily administrative, best filled by able and experienced professionals of either party.
Actually, there's no good reason the five offices should be elective, since competency, not ideology, is the main concern. But as long as the state constitution says elections will determine who holds those offices, the lesson for Norfolk Democrats could hardly be clearer: Their nomination no longer means automatic election, so care must be taken to choose attractive, qualified candidates. Put another way: Run the best man or woman - or lose.
Incidentally, it speaks well of Norfolk voters that in recent elections they have studied the citywide candidates' qualifications and records and voted for the best ones, regardless of party. by CNB