Qualifications for Public Office
Thursday, April 15th, 2010
I got a good laugh when I read in the Beloit Daily News that Rock County, WI is struggling with the issue Coroner vs. Medical Examiner issue.
THE CURRENT CORONER, Jenifer Keach, may have a point when she argues there are personalities and politics involved in efforts to switch her office from an elective position in Rock County to an appointed medical examiner.
FIRST, UNDERSTAND why coroners are elected in the first place. It’s a throwback to a much earlier time, when the Wisconsin Constitution was adopted, and all manner of relatively minor offices were set up to be filled by election at both local and state levels.
Obviously, as the years have gone by, death investigations have become much more complicated and scientific. Yet anybody can be elected coroner, with or without professional qualifications.
(I’ve written about this before but it is a story worth re-telling.)
The reason I laughed when I read that was because in 1996 I was elected Coroner of Barron County,WI on a 50-48 write-in victory. It was during a time when Barron County was in transition to a Medical Examiner yet the Coroner position was still on the ballot. I didn’t serve but I am the living proof that “anyone can be elected coroner…without any professional qualifications.”
The headline in the newspaper read …Coroner-Elect may be DOA.
It was a hoot.
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