Getting to know Joe Luvara

Joe Luvara is running for a seat on the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas.

Joe Luvara campaign site

1. Why are you running for office?

I am running to be public servant dedicated to protecting the values of Mr. Rogers so that for the next generations, Allegheny County will remain a neighborhood that he professes, and that when the man in the cardigan sweater and tennis shoes says this to the children on the only international television show filmed in Pittsburgh, that those values of fairness, even play, and the protection and preservation of our values, remains.

2. What would you like to see accomplished while you are in office?

Addressing the ideas that we need in order to be a leader in the eliminating criminal activity of young people, who generally lack education and supervision. If this generation continues to have felony convictions, they cannot find employment. Nobody will hire them. They will therefore return to crime. We need to find a system that allows us to treat them and to give them training in life skills. Also, there are many persons who are involved in drugs and have mental health problems. Prison is not the answer. The answer is to expand drug court and mental health court and to gain alternatives for these persons so that they can be functional. lastly, this county that lead the way in cleaning air and addressing urban renewal, needs to be the leader that addresses the foreclosure problem, protects people from fraud (especially the elderly).

3. Which federal court decision do you think has most impacted society? How and why?

Lochner. This is the case that says that people should be free to contract. This case is used to limit the rights of ordinary persons, in FAVOR OF THE RICH AND POWERFUL. This is the excuse for attacking unions, people's pensions, etc.

4. How much freedom do you think a judicial candidate should have to express his views?

I would prefer not to comment.

5. Do you think judges should be elected by the people or appointed by a commission?

Elected.

6. Do you believe the composition of juries adequately and fairly reflects society at large? Why or why not? If not, what can we do to change this?

There is always room for improvement in anything. On balance, my experience is that juries tend to take their assignments seriously and that they do a good job in making decisions.

7. What do you perceive as the greatest obstacles to justice?

The attitude of looking for simple answers to complex problems and the judiciary’s dilemma of wanting to look for favorable public opinion polls. Being a judge is difficult. Part of the freedom needed in order to be a judge is required so that when making of difficult decisions, the decisions are not based on a challenge to his or her popularity.

8. Do you feel the war on drugs has been effective or ineffective?

We need to do better! We need to protect our children, interdict the traffic and we need economic development, including education, in order to stop the incentive. We need to be a court that understands the value of hope, as well as the value of punishment.

9. Who are your judicial role models? Why?

Louis Brandies. He had courage to challenge the unfair, had the ability to explain himself in a brief way, and he could reason past the problem in order to create solutions. He best expressed the idea of the right to privacy, which its protection should be one of the greatest challenges to the moral fiber of our future. In other words, many are good at telling what is wrong with a situation, while he was able to create positive change that made life find greater order. Justice Brandies was the latter.

10. What would make you a good Judge?

I am a private practitioner and I have been independent of the large firm mentality and the government points of view. The rights of ordinary persons are what I have looked to protect. Many times, I have been acting in a pro bono role because it is the right thing to do, because the ordinary people need fairness. They need an even playing field. Further, because I have been part of the Bloomfield community, being an owner of an Italian food store with my family, I believe that I have learned humility and I have learned respect for the needs of the neighborhood. This means that I have first hand knowledge of both the value of a neighborhood and the challenges that it takes in order to preserve it. To be a judge, you need first hand knowledge. You need wisdom from that knowledge. Then you need the courage and constitution to follow through, especially when it means protecting ordinary people. I know that I have the values to do this.

Lastly, I have been blessed with an 18 month-old foster child. Her name is Olivia. I am 53 and I never had children. Now, I am motivated in a very special way, that only a parent can be motivated, in order to do more. I want Olivia and all of the Olivia’s in this County to be able to tell their children that Allegheny is still the land of the man in the cardigan sweater, tennis shoes and that reassures the rest of this country that fairness is not weakness. It is the way that you make it a “beautiful day in the neighborhood.”