Campaign slogan: “Elect me and I’ll quit”

By Brian Kirwin | Tuesday, July 6th, 2010 | Politics

It’s time to start chipping way at yet another anachronistic method of a bygone era when political bosses ran local politics through elected constitutional offices.

I propose we democratically move to rid ourselves of the Byrd era powerhouses of City Treasurer and Commissioner of the Revenue.

Cities are required to have these state constitutional offices, and many who have looked at these two at least think they should be merged, a position I have supported in the past. But I think an even better idea is ending the Sen. Harry Byrd-era sham elections for them entirely, and merging them into one job would be a good idea still.

What were known as “courthouse cliques” had as one of their their main jobs of deciding whose poll taxes were paid in time to vote. But today offers enough modern reasoning for ending the cliques without revisiting Mr. Massive Resistance Byrd.

Norfolk’s Commissioner of the Revenue thinks it’s her job to appoint herself as a lobbyist, hang out in Richmond and run up charges on her city credit card.

How much work can your job in Norfolk be if you can moonlight in Richmond for weeks on end?

Let’s face it folks. Constitutional officers never lose elections. They are rarely even challenged, even though they rarely can do the job they’re elected to do, and hire a chief deputy to actually do the job. By and large, they are nice folks, these elected officials. But being unopposed or given only token opposition every four years over the decades shows the sham of these “elections.” You’re voting for the person who handpicks the person, the deputy, who really does the work.

Eliminating the faux-elections for these political powerbrokers would mean changing the Virginia Constitution. Lots of work. I propose we see how much interest there would be to allow this old practice to end.

Begin a statewide slate of candidates for Treasurer and Commissioner of the Revenue who pledge that, if elected, they will quit. Such a mandate will tell the General Assembly all they need to know to amend the Constitution to allow elimination of these high-salaried figurehead political posts and permit the hiring of actual qualified professionals to do the jobs.

If the people elect folks willing to shrink government by ending these political show jobs by quitting, Richmond will get the message loud and clear, and without Norfolk’s Commissioner running up the restaurant tab.

“Elect me and I’ll quit”

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