Most of us in the blogosphere and many of the voters are not paying attention to the Clerk of Court races around the state, but we should be. They are important offices that carry eight year terms and affect our lives from birth to death.In a Prince William County debate last week before the Committee of 100, Democratic Clerk of Court candidate Bill Ryland scored a decisive win over his two Republican opponents in the race for the Clerk of the Circuit Court covering Prince William County, Manassas, and Manassas Park.
Ryland was able to define the vast difference in qualifications for the job between him and Republican Michele McQuigg and Republican/Independent Lucile Beauchamp.
A video of the debate can be watched here.
The Clerk not only administers the court system and the criminal and civil dockets. The Clerk is responsible for real estate deeds and transactions, birth and death records, custody matters, probate, marriage licenses, divorces, weapons permits, and hundreds of other legal matters.Ryland compared his experience as Clerk, as a former assistant Commonwealth Attorney, and his 27-years as a lawyer working with the Clerk on a daily basis with the meager credentials of McQuigg and Beauchamp.
McQuigg, a retiring GOP delegate whose seat will be won by Democrat Paul Nichols, has little administrative experience and no experience with the Code of Virginia. She has a degree in home economics and says she is qualified to be Clerk because she talked with a lot of people over the last 25 years. In a desperate move to show some management credentials, McQuigg took credit for "managing the Commonwealth's $77 billion budget." (Governor Kaine and his staff may have a different take on McQuigg running the state.)
Beauchamp is a Republican school board chairman who told The Washington Post in December that she was qualified to be Clerk of Court because she watched a lot of Perry Mason on television and she once served on a jury. She has a degree in mathematics. She tried to take credit for running the school system, but Ryland rightly pointed out that the county pays big salaries to the school superintendent, the deputy superintendent, eight associate superintendents, and dozens of other administrative and program management staff to run the schools and administer the budget.
Both Republican candidates failed in their efforts to stretch the truth about their administrative experience to try and blunt the fact that Ryland needs no on-the-job training because he served as Clerk in 1991 when he was appointed by the Circuit Court judges to fill out the unexpired term of a retiring Clerk. As Ryland noted during the debate, "The judges trusted me with the job and I hope you will, too."
Ryland can win this race if he has the funds necessary to reach the Prince William and Manassas voters with his message. I hope some of you will consider contributing to Bill's campaign. For more information, visit www.rylandforclerk.com or call Hadley or Sally at 703-494-0926.
The Clerk also manages jury selection (which can have a significant impact on criminal cases and civil verdicts) and keeps other important records.
Also, in today's world, managing the the clerk's office frequently involves managing significant computer networks which speak to multiple other networks all of which have access to very private information which has value to information identity thieves and information that can affect people's creditworthiness.
It is not an unimportant job at all.