By Elizabeth Ross

After about a quarter of a century watching and participating in the political process as a concerned citizen, campaign worker and writer, I honestly had lost hope that I would ever find what friends and colleagues used to refer to as a “dream candidate.” This classification was reserved for individuals who had a clear idea – without advice or prompting from others – of not only what they wanted to do once they managed to get in office, but also what they really needed to do to get there. I would love to say that I managed to find a dream candidate during one of the years when I was vetting individuals I was considering working for, but no, this discovery found me by ringing my doorbell.

Meagan Bilik DeFazio is a candidate for judge in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. She is a wife, mother of two children, and private practice lawyer. In her spare time, she serves as an instructor in Duquesne University Law School’s Trial Moot Court program – preparing students for appearances in court, including rules of court and courtroom etiquette. Bilik DeFazio’s history in the courtroom spans from clerking for the Pennsylvania Superior Court, to serving as an Assistant Public Defender in the Office of the Public Defender in Westmoreland County, and finally to her current position in private practice.

From the beginning she has been running her campaign with an uncommon amount of, well… common sense. What really caught my attention was her attitude about hitting the streets to campaign. “I think that voters like to meet a candidate before voting for him or her.  They like to get a feel for the candidate in order to evaluate their level of comfort and trust.  They tend to vote for candidates that they like.  I feel that, in a judicial race especially, voters want to make sure that they can relate to the candidate on a human level,” Bilik DeFazio stated in a subsequent interview. “I think that the voters I am meeting understand that I will never be sitting up on a pedestal.  I went into this journey intending to create a grassroots campaign and that is what we have done.  I am out meeting the voters everyday and interviewing for the job.  I surprised a lot of people in the primary and everyone has a theory about how I did it.  The truth is that I got out early, worked my tail off and never let up.”

Honestly, I hadn’t been paying much attention to this race before Bilik DeFazio ended up on my doorstep, but just from speaking with her for a few moments then, I understood very clearly that she was doing precisely what I’d told many other candidates to do in the past. Winning an election isn’t about speeches, debates, flyers and advertisements – those are just the tried-and-true tools that are used. It is about reaching the people. But more and more today, the people seem to be impressed with candidates who take the time to actually talk to them, one on one. The old door knocking campaign strategy is regaining popularity with the voters, and Bilik DeFazio’s campaign success so far is testament to that.

Truth is perception – a statement that I’ve repeated scores of times. In Westmoreland County, that can be a crucial issue for a woman candidate for the bench, primarily because many of our citizens have the perception that women judges can be too soft on crime. We already have one woman on the bench who has been cited in the press multiple times for having that fault. Bilik DeFazio seems to have cleared that hurdle easily, as she explains, “My family laughs when I am asked if I am “tough enough for the job.”  They know that this has never been a problem for me.  I may have a big smile on my face most of the time, but being pleasant has nothing to do with being tough and there is no reason why I cannot be both.  I am skilled in the area of criminal law and I am also a mother of two.  I am committed to keeping our community safe while always respecting the constitutional rights of each person who comes before me. In fact, it is remarkable how many men have indicated their support for me because I am a mother of two small children and they feel confident that, for that reason, I will be extremely tough on sex offenders and child predators.  I must say that I will have little mercy on those defendants convicted of victimizing children.”

I have often predicted that the tide would turn for women in politics, and that the public – particularly men – would begin to recognize the strength required of women to keep a home, family, and job. “I do not feel at a disadvantage per se, but it has been a little tricky juggling work, family and the campaign for the last year,” Bilik DeFazio stated. “I have done my best to keep things as normal as possible for my children so that they do not suffer due to my schedule.  I still go on field trips and volunteer at school.  I still do the laundry and grocery shopping.  I pack lunches and backpacks.  I drive my daughter to and from preschool everyday.  I just don’t have time to sleep and I show up to court with princess stickers and the remnants of my children’s breakfast on my suit.”

Juggling family, job and candidacy is something that is relatively uncommon for women running for judicial seats. Unlike men, women candidates for many offices wait until they are older to avoid increasing the juggling act. However, that choice may deprive the citizens of public servants with a perspective that is not often seen today. “I now realize why most judicial candidates wait until their children are grown to run for office.  It would certainly be easier,” Bilik Defazio observes.  “However, if every woman waited until she was “older” and her children were grown, we would never have the benefit of her valuable perspective in government.  The difficulty of this endeavor is very much worth it because I will bring a unique and necessary perspective to the bench in Westmoreland County.”

About Elizabeth

Elizabeth Ross is a freelance political writer from Pennsylvania. Before writing about politics, she spent the better part of 25 years working for various political campaigns in various capacities from local to federal level, including a few for causes as opposed to people. Currently she writes political commentaries at various places on the Web including The November 3^rd Club (http://www.november3rdclub.com/), and serves as a political editor at Whereistand (http://whereistand.com/). Otherwise, she is involved with a campaign to get Pennsylvania Lawmakers to use Twitter (currently on hiatus pending the passage of a state budget.)

Elizabeth Ross – Everything in Its Own Time

http://www.elizabethross.info/