Superior Court candidate visits farm show
CONNOQUENESSING TWP — A lot of Jill Beck’s work on the campaign trail for Pennsylvania Superior Court has been educating people as to what judges for the court do and how they impact rulings on a local and state level.
Beck, a Democratic candidate for Superior Court on Nov. 7, stopped at the Butler Farm Show Monday evening, Aug. 7, to speak with constituents and get the word out about the Superior Court election and her goals for the office, if elected.
“I want to run my campaign like I plan to run my courtroom; with every voice having an opportunity to be heard,” said Beck, who is from Pittsburgh. “Our goal is to meet voters where they are and talking to them and try to get them informed and excited about electing good and qualified judges.”
Members of the Butler County Democratic Committee led Beck around the farm show, where she spoke with the event’s organizers as well as attendees.
Catherine Lalonde, chairwoman of the Butler County Democratic Committee, said the committee’s booth at the Butler Farm Show is there to demonstrate that the party has a presence in Republican-dominant Butler County.
“A lot of our main thing is showing that there are Democrats in Butler County, and we have a very active committee,” Lalonde said. “People need to know what their options are.”
During her visit, Beck explained her background working as a lawyer and as a clerk for the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, which led to her decision to run for Superior Court this election cycle. She said she even worked in the Butler County Courthouse for a summer in 2004.
“I started my legal career representing abused and neglected children in Allegheny County,” Beck said. “After my clerkship, I joined a law firm where I was a commercial litigator; I did appellate practice in Superior Court and across the country.”
“These cases do or do not apply to you depending on how the courts interpret them,” Beck said. “For me it’s about applying the laws written and interpreting the law, not rewriting the law, because I care about the courts, I care about the law and I care about the people.”
Having practiced law in many areas pertaining to the Superior Court, Beck said she wanted to become involved as a judge because their decisions could have larger implications for Pennsylvanians across the state.
Beck is married with two children, and added that she received a favorable review from the Pennsylvania Bar Association, and wants to be a nonpartisan, reasonable voice on the bench in Superior Court.
“In reviewing some of those cases, I would see people who lost their homes when they shouldn’t, lost their freedom when they shouldn’t, lost their children when they shouldn’t,” Beck said of working in the Supreme Court. “For me, (running) was about doing something about the problem that I saw; wanting to be someone who every single case go the time and energy needed.”
