Bedford Co. Democrats welcome political candidates at monthly meeting

BEDFORD COUNTY (WTAJ)– The Bedford County Democrats welcomed state and local democratic candidates at their meeting Tuesday evening.

The meeting took place on Tuesday, Jan. 31, and the first to speak at the event was Democratic Candidate for Pennsylvania’s Superior Court, Jill Beck. Beck says that she knows the court inside and out and has a wealth of legal experience, but that she plans to keep politics out of the equation.

“From my point of view, you don’t want a republican judge or a democratic judge, you want a judge who’s going to be fair and impartial and do the work,” Beck said. “And do the hard work of really getting to the bottom of the case.”

Next was the democratic candidate for Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth Court, Bryan Neft. Neft says that his message is simple, he wants to help people.

“And that’s what a judge does is they make decisions that affect people and their daily lives and it’s really, sometimes they’re really hard decisions,” Neft added. “But people need to know that there is somebody there who is taking a fair and full look at everything that is going up there.”

Bedford County Commissioner Deb Baughman announced her campaign for a second term. Baughman says that there is still a lot of work to be done in the county, especially in broadband internet access.

“That’s been such a deficiency here, and in 2020 we developed a master plan, and we’ve since finished phase one,” Baughman said.

One thing that is different about her campaign this year though is that she has a “running mate.” Matthew Wilt is a senior at Elizabethtown College double majoring in political science and legal studies. He will be working with Baughman as he hopes to also become a county commissioner in this election cycle.

Wilt joined the meeting via Zoom call from his dorm room, and echoed what Baughman said about broadband access, saying that it would help inspire more to live in Bedford County.

“Every year the enrollment of students based on the grade level goes down,” Wilt said. “And it’s been declining for at least a decade. In addition, it’s no secret that in the last ten years the population in Bedford County shrunk by almost four percent.”