His counterparts from across the region gathered Dec. 19 for a dinner in honor of retiring Fairfax County Clerk of the Circuit John Frey.
And tasked him with one final duty.
At the dinner, Frey was asked to swear in Loudoun County Clerk of Court Gary Clemens for a new term. Clemens at one time had worked under Frey in the Fairfax clerk’s office.
Frey, who opted not to seek re-election to another eight-year term in 2023, had served in office for 32 years and was one of the few remaining Republican office-holders in a county that has been denuded of them over the past three decades.
Starting on the job Jan. 1 will be Democrat Chris Falcon, who in November defeated Frey’s chief deputy, Gerarda Culipher, to win the post. Over recent weeks, Frey and Falcon have been collaborating to make for a smooth transition.
Although 32 years is lengthy by any standard, long tenures tend to be relatively commonplace among clerks of court in Virginia. And going back in history to when Fairfax had an elected county clerk (a separate office from court clerk), a father-and-son duo held the office for an astounding 105 consecutive years (1830-1935) between them.
Arlington Clerk Sworn in for New Term: He’s usually the one doing the swearing – er, we mean doing the swearing in – but on Dec. 19, it was Paul Ferguson taking the oath of office for a third eight-year term as Clerk of the Circuit Court for Arlington and Falls Church.
The oath was administered during his office’s holiday party by Circuit Court Chief Judge Judith Wheat.
The event’s one snafu had nothing to do with either Wheat or Ferguson, but was courtesy the State Board of Elections. Ferguson’s formal certificate of election says the term is for four years, half the actual length.
(Apparently the same problem cropped up with similar certificates for clerk courts across the commonwealth this year. The error is being rectified.)
Why do Virginia clerks of courts have some of the longest tenures of elected officials in the country? There are a number of reasons, but one dates back to the days when Virginia was ruled by a succession of political machines, the last and most remembered being the Harry Byrd political organization, which reigned supreme in state politics from the 1930s through the 1960s.
When it came to extending its tentacles down to the local-government level, that machine didn’t particularly care who served on city councils and boards of supervisors, but made sure they had their man (and all indeed were men) in place as both county clerk and court clerk in each jurisdiction and ensured a long term to keep them there.
When the state constitution was rewritten in the early 1970s (five years after Harry Byrd Sr.’s death), the eight-year term was retained for clerks of court. All other local constitutional officers – sheriff, commonwealth’s attorney, commissioner of revenue and treasurer – serve four-year terms.
Ferguson, an attorney, was serving on the County Board when in 2007 he was elected over Republican Mark Kelly to succeed veteran incumbent Clerk David Bell. Ferguson subsequently was unopposed for re-election in 2015 and 2023.
