Linda Bebko-Jones

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Linda Bebko-Jones
Pennsylvania Driver's licence photo
Member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from the 1st district
In office 1993 – 2007
Preceded by	Ken Kruszewski
Succeeded by	Pat Harkins
Born	May 1, 1946 (1946-05-01) (age 62) Erie, Pennsylvania
Political party	Democratic
Residence	Erie, Pennsylvania
Religion	Roman Catholic

Linda Bebko-Jones (born May 1, 1946) is a retired American politician who represented the 1st district of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, which includes portions of Erie County.

[edit] Personal

Bebko-Jones was born in Erie, Pennsylvania. She attended Erie Business Academy from 1964 to 1965.^[1] Prior to elective office, she spent time working as an alcohol and drug counselor and said that she had been an alcoholic herself in the past. ^[2]

Later on, she was director of Women Against Sexual Harassment from 1989 to 1992 and a caseworker for Community House for Women from 1990 to 1991. Her career in politics began with a stint as an administrative assistant for Pennsylvania State Senator A. Buzz Andrezeski from 1984 to 1989, moving on to become a caseworker for former United States Senator Harris Wofford in 1990.

[edit] Political career

Bebko-Jones made her first run at the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 1992 defeating freshman incumbent Ken Kruszewski in the Democratic primary. She went on to defeat Republican Jerry Knight, an aide to Rep. Phil English,^[3] in the general election by 1,100 votes. ^[4]

Winning re-election was an easier task for Bebko-Jones. She won by over 5,000 votes, two-thirds of the vote, in 1994 over Jerry Podolsky. ^[4] In 1996 and 2000, she ran unopposed for re-election and in 1998, she won after her GOP opponent quit the race and tried to withdraw from the ballot. ^[5]

The 2004 path to re-election was less easy. An opponent, Jim Herdzik, emerged for her in the Democratic primary. His challenge came on the heels of a minor scandal involving a fire in her district office. Immediately after the fire, there were reports that it has been caused by Bebko-Jones leaving a lit cigarette in the office. However, the fire marshal did not conclusively determine the cause, only that it was accidental. After the repairs were made to the office, Bebko-Jones moved out prior to lease expiration, claiming that the air inside the building was unhealthy. Eventually, her landlord agreed to a settlement with the state, although the incident generated some negative publicity for Bebko-Jones. ^[6] Herdzik even rented the former office as a campaign headquarters, presumably to remind voters of the incident. However, on election day, Bebko-Jones cruised with over 60% of the vote. ^[7]

In 2005, she ran for mayor of Erie against incumbent Rick Filippi, who had been indicted on corruption charges. ^[8] Bebko-Jones ultimately finished third in the race, behind Joseph Sinnott who went on to become mayor. ^[9]

After initially running for re-election in 2006, she announced her retirement after a challenge to her nomination petitions by one of her primary opponents. She was succeeded by Pat Harkins.^[2]

In November 2007, a state-wide grand jury was convened to investigate abnormalities in her nominating petitions for the 2006 Democratic primary. On 28 February 2007 Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett charged Bebko-Jones and her former chief-of-staff with forging nominating petitions and submitting the fraudulent forms to the Secretary of the Commonwealth.^{[10][11][12][13][14][10][15][16]}

[edit] References