THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, April 20, 1996 TAG: 9604200001
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A13 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
SOURCE: KERRY DOUGHERTY
LENGTH: Medium: 82 lines
I grew up in New Jersey. It's not something I'm proud of, but it's something I didn't have a lot of control over, either. I left home and the state at 17.
But every once in a while I get nostalgic for New Jersey. It's a place where people speak frankly. In fact, Jerseyites are as blunt as their streams are polluted. New Jersey politicians brag about their deals and go on TV to describe them in juicy detail.
For a long time, all political deals in New Jersey were cut by Democrats. Now they're rigged by Republicans, proving that politicians of any political stripe can excel at wheeling and dealing, once they grab power.
But Virginia, my home since 1975, is genteel. Some bewigged gentleman, perhaps James Madison or George Mason, must have decreed that politics is beneath the dignity of true Virginians.
So in the commonwealth we have politicians who deny they are political and camouflage their political shenanigans with a weird Virginia veneer. Rest assured, even if a deal looks political and smells political, that doesn't mean anyone will admit it is - not in the Old Dominion. It's probably just a coincidence. A Virginia coincidence.
You have the good ol' boys' word on it.
For instance, Virginia politicians would have you believe that appointing judges in the commonwealth has never been a political exercise. It's just a strange Virginia coincidence - serendipity, really - that no Republican ever was found fit for a judgeship by the Democrats who did the appointing.
Same goes for appointments to be commissioner of accounts, overseeing settlement of wills and estates. If this weren't Virginia we could call them political-patronage jobs - for that's what they'd be somewhere less genteel, like New Jersey. But in Virginia these are simply lucrative positions - an honor, really - bestowed on select lawyers anointed by the nonpolitical judges.
Last week we learned that Edward Stolle, brother of state Sen. Ken Stolle, had been so honored. Those of us crass enough to pay attention to matters as vulgar as politics had heard months ago that this appointment was in the works. So we were unsurprised by this latest Virginia coincidence.
But those who engineered the appointment would have us believe they hardly knew the Stolles were brothers.
``We do not make political appointments,'' said one well-respected local judge of Edward Stolle's incredible good luck.
For those who don't know what great jobs these commissioners' positions are, consider the fact that the General Assembly has fought tooth and nail nearly every session to keep secret the amount patronage jobs pay. So we, the public, can only guess how much dough is involved. We do know that lawyers will do almost anything - short of stooping to politics - to get one.
Let's just say it's rumored that a commissioner's job - part-time work at best - pays in the neighborhood of $100,000 in a good year, when lots of people die.
Here's what I think happened to bring about Edward Stolle's good fortune: I think local Democrats got nervous when the Republicans edged closer to taking control of the General Assembly - especially since Republicans outnumbered them five to one in the Virginia Beach delegation.
Local Democrats must have fretted that deals like the reappointments of sitting judges could get messy if the Republicans wanted to make trouble. One way to pacify the Republicans would be to let them - finally - have a judgeship of their very own. Enter A. Joseph Canada. A former state senator himself.
Another way to ensure that the Republicans behaved themselves would be to appoint a Republican commissioner of accounts.
And, lo and behold, who should they come up with but Edward Stolle?
It's just a Virginia coincidence that he's the brother of the local state senator, Virginia Beach's most powerful Republican, who is angling to be the next Virginia attorney general. It's still another of those wacky Virginia coincidences that the Stolles are law partners, which presumably means Senator Stolle gets to share in Commissioner Stolle's loot at the end of each year.
You know, you get a whiff of so many coincidences and you begin to think this all smells a lot like politics.
Then again, what would I know about politics? I grew up in New Jersey. MEMO: Ms. Dougherty is an editorial writer for The Virginian-Pilot.
by CNB