Is Sun country ready to elect a woman, a Democratic woman, to represent it?

Judy Hirsh is about to find out.

She scored an impressive, 9,500-vote victory over Alvin Taylor to gain the Democratic nomination for the 15th Senatorial District (most of Dauphin and part of York counties), but now, she faces a much bigger challenge. She faces Jeff Piccola, who has held the seat for more than 12 years.

Where do you start? We met with Hirsh at The Sun office to talk about the campaign to come, Jeff Piccola and the changing face of Dauphin County. The following is a transcript of our discussion, edited only for length:

The Sun: I’m guessing as you go door-to-door you have to introduce yourself to people and say who is Judy Hirsh?

Hirsh: Pretty much. I do occasionally meet people who have heard of me, [laughs] which makes me very happy. They’ve seen my name. They’ve seen my mail. We sent out a lot of mail in the primary. We had about a 24,000-person household universe for the primary. We hit a lot of doors, but half of the people, maybe, have not heard of me. I do tell them who I am and what my campaign’s all about, and I’ve gotten a great reception.

The Sun: Let’s make that introduction to the half in Sun country. Where do you live?

Hirsh: I live in Susquehanna Township. I’ve lived in Susquehanna Township for the last 24 years. My husband and I live there with our three children, ranging in age from 18 to 10.

We have a business in Lower Paxton Township. It’s a real estate consulting company, and for about 13 years I’ve worked with my husband in the business as the business manager, doing the financial things.

The Sun: At one point you worked for the Commonwealth.

Hirsh: I did. That’s how I came to Harrisburg. I have a masters in public administration, and I came to Harrisburg as a budget analyst with the House Appropriations Committee. I worked there for four years until I decided that I wanted to try something different. I got married, and I also went to law school. I attended Dickenson law school and graduated from there.

I practiced law for four years until my second child was a year old, but I still have my license. I keep my license current.

The Sun: So you were a state employee for how long?

Hirsh: Four years.

The Sun: Of course, Jeff Piccola has been a state employee for 30-some years.

Hirsh: 32.

The Sun: Are you ever tempted to think of him as another George Gekas, one who has taken his job for granted?

Hirsh: I’m not really in a position to classify the incumbent’s position. All I know is that I have worked in this community as a volunteer. I’m a parent in this community. I’ve had a lot of projects in this community, and I think there’s some sort of disconnect between our elected officials and the people. People are looking for change. They’re looking for something different. They’re looking for some different kinds of energized. People are really energized with the whole presidential campaign. It’s just an example of people looking for something different, new blood and new ideas.

The Sun: And while it’s not nearly as Republican as it used to be, Dauphin County is still primarily a Republican [county].

Hirsh: Actually, today, there are more registered Democrats than there are Republicans in the county voter registration rolls. (As of June 30, the Dauphin County count was 81,626 Democrats and 81,340 Republicans. - Ed.)

So the Democrats, for the first time ever, are the majority party. I think people don’t understand that, and they’re not aware of it. They still think of it as … conservative.

The Sun: A lot of them are Reagan Democrats.

Hirsh: I don’t know. There’s been all kinds of new Democrats on the registration rolls, and I’m not really sure you can classify those as Reagan Democrats. Are they conservative Democrats? I don’t know. In the past, Republicans were for sure the stronghold, but this district is really changing. People are changing. The majority of people in this district are baby boomers. Over 60% are between the ages of 35-55. So they’re younger, and they understand what’s going on in the world. They understand what the problems are. They’re looking for doers, people who get things done.

The Sun: And Tim Holden has shown that a Democrat can win in this area. But Tim Holden can look like every other good-old-boy Republican. But you’re not a boy.

Hirsh: No [laughs].

The Sun: And I’m guessing you’re not an NRA member like Tim Holden. How open do you think the people of this area are to someone who looks like Judy Hirsh, not Tim Holden or Jeff Piccola or George Gekas?

Hirsh: I hope people are open to just electing the person for what the person is and electing someone who has a track record of getting things done in the community, who has good ideas, a great educational background, has experience and is really willing to listen to people, to understand the problems that are here….

The Sun: The first thing you have to get done as a candidate is to raise some money. How’s that going?

Hirsh: It’s going great. I’ve been at it since January because I had a primary opponent, and I reached out to as many people as I could. I was fortunate to get the funds that I needed to win very decisively. I got 64% of the vote, and it’s continuing to go well. I’m on the phone for hours every day, and people are excited about it. It’s to tough to get people on the phone, but once I get people on the phone, I have a great "yes" rate. They’re not giving me the thousands that I’m asking for, but I just want to reach as many people as I can and get them engaged and invested….

The Sun: Has the Democratic Senate campaign committee offered any help?

Hirsh: Oh, yeah. The Democratic Senate campaign committee has me on their list. I am one of just a few targeted races, and they are giving me lots of help.

The Sun: Lots of money?

Hirsh: They have put a campaign manager on the ground for me. They’re funding that position. They’re very positive about my race, and they are being very supportive.

I know that this race is going to cost a lot of money. I’m going to work very hard to raise the money I’m going to need to spend, but I’m going to need to look to other sources as revenue as well. Hopefully, the senate will be there for me. They’ve told me that they’ll be there for me.

The Sun: Education is the issue you’re pushing. If you entered the Senate, what would be the first education legislation you’d like to see passed?

Hirsh: We need to make sure that we’re distributing funds to our schools that take into account the income level, the taxing effort, the poverty students, all of the indicators that show that the district needs more to educate their kids, instead of just giving a percentage increase….

It’s really important that we equalize the funding in this commonwealth. It shouldn’t matter where a kid grows up. They all should be entitled to the same kind of education. It’s the responsibility of the state and local government, but I think that the state has not really fulfilled their responsibility….

We need to make sure that our schools are able to fund full kindergarten programs statewide with as much money as we can put into early education. It’s so important. There’s like a direct correlation between the money that we put into early education and the results that we see later.

I know that my opponent has specifically voted against Head Start money, early education money, and I think that’s really where we need to invest our money.

The Sun: Equalization. That’s a dirty word to people in an area like this – Derry Township, Lower Township school districts – because these school districts do raise and spend a lot of money on their schools. How do you avoid penalizing the school districts that have made the effort to raise the money?

Hirsh: Part of the factory equitable subsidy would take into consideration each district’s taxing effort, and the more that they tax themselves the better off they would be. They wouldn’t be penalized for it. It would be a factory that would taken into consideration.

Let’s just face it. In a political environment, no school district is going to get less money than they’ve gotten before….

The Sun: Do we need to stop using the property tax to fund education?

Hirsh: There’s certainly a lot of people who would like that. I just don’t see it happening. It is a very stable source of funding for education. So unless somebody could introduce and show me a stabilized source of funding that can guarantee the same level of income that we generate from our property taxes, I don’t see it going away….

The Sun: Let’s get back to politics for a second. What do you have to do to win?

Hirsh: Work very hard.