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‘I’ll always fight’: New at-large county council member brings energized attitude

By Harry Funk staff Writer hfunk@thealmanac.Net 6 min read
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For those who like elected officials to be informed and ready to discuss how governmental actions are going to affect them, meet Bethany Hallam.

At the start of 2020, she took over an at-large seat on Allegheny County Council that had been held by the same person since the council’s inception two decades earlier, about the time Hallam was in elementary school, running for student council.

These days – or at least, prior to COVID-19 keeping her from greeting constituents in person – one of her favorite activities is sharing her intricate knowledge of the workings of government on multiple levels, from county to state to national.

“People look at me and they see this young girl, and she’s not wearing heels and a business suit like the Hillary Clinton attire, and they wonder: What is she going to do for me? How is she going to represent me?” Hallam said. “And so I think it’s my job to prove to people that they made the right choice.”

As a thirtysomething, and just barely, the lifelong Ross Township resident is the youngest individual to have been elected to an Allegheny County-wide office. Her journey from serving on student council to county council includes some significant would-be obstacles to leading a normal life, much less representing more than 1.2 million people.

But Hallam is frank about a past including substance abuse disorder that at one point landed her in jail, and she’s channeling the vigor that sobriety affords her into working on behalf of her constituents.

“They wanted somebody whom they knew was going to be fighting for them every day, and that’s the one thing that I can promise I’ll do,” she said. “I can’t promise I’ll always win the fights, but I can promise that I’ll always fight.”

While playing lacrosse at North Hills High School, Hallam tore the anterior cruciate ligaments in both her knees, one immediately after recovering from the other. When she subsequently was overprescribed painkillers, it began a 10-year battle against substance abuse. During that time, she earned her bachelor’s degree in public relations and Spanish, but her recovery didn’t take effect until 2016, while she was incarcerated.

Her release came shortly after the start of the following year, and a friend helped stave off her state of depression – “You’re not just going to sit at home and feel sorry for yourself,” he told her – by taking Hallam to the Women’s March Jan. 21, 2017, in Washington, D.C., the largest single-day protest in American history.

“That’s what really made me realize, OK, this is what I’m going to do,” she recalled. “This is how I’m going to make my amends. This is how I’m going to take all of the energy that I put into my battle with substance use disorder for so long and put it into something productive.”

She actually had been serving on her local Democratic Committee at the time of her incarceration, and then stepped up her efforts in working on behalf of her party’s candidates and elected officials.

Then, in November 2018, came the elections of nearby residents Sara Innamorato, 34, and Summer Lee, 32, to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives.

“That was the first time I saw people who were like me,” Hallam said about the victors. “They were just regular folks. They weren’t rich. They didn’t have some fancy last name. They didn’t have the entire Democratic establishment behind them. But they decided to throw their hats in the ring and run for office, and they won.”

Combined with her own wins in the 2019 primary and general election, Hallam is eager to share such success stories with younger people who have an interest in politics.

“You can do this, too,” she said. “When I was your age and when I was in your situation, I never thought I could run for office because I didn’t think I had a chance in hell of winning, and because I didn’t think that anyone would support me. But if you don’t try, you’ll never know.”

In last year’s primary, she defeated John DeFazio of neighboring Shaler Township, a former professional wrestler nearly half a century her senior who hadn’t really faced a challenge since his election to Allegheny County Council 20 years previously.

Running on a platform featuring an extensive list of progressive policies, Hallam blanketed the county to engage voters in discussions.

“I knew that the only way to win was to just talk to everybody and find out what they want to see, what they’re happy about with the current administration, see what they’re pissed off about and see what they want,” she said. “And the overwhelming response was, they wanted change.”

She credits members of her campaign staff with contributing substantially to her election.

“Most of them were volunteers, and they were as passionate about my message as I was,” she said. “Anybody who wanted to help was welcome. Nobody was excluded from our movement, because that’s what we were fighting against, the fact that so many people feel excluded from the democratic process.”

Shortly after Hallam took her seat on county council, of course, the legislative body had to adapt to restrictions caused by COVID-19, and members have been meeting virtually through Microsoft Teams.

“You don’t have that in-person caucusing with other members of council before the meeting. So that definitely changed the dynamic a lot,” she said. “But one of the benefits is that everyone is on a level playing field when it comes to this, whether you’ve been an elected official for 20, 30, 40 years, or whether you’ve been in office for a couple of months.”

Along with council, she also serves on the county’s Jail Oversight Board and Board of Elections, continuing to concentrate on working toward systemic improvements throughout the pandemic.

“It’s definitely unique and interesting,” she said, “and now I can say, ‘Hey, I’ve been there, and this is how we handled it,’ God forbid, if it happens again.”

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