Profile — Judy Hamilton
By BILL BENGTSON
She's a fixture at Aiken County Council meetings, and Judy Hamilton's visits have provided her with some ideas about what she hopes to see, in the wake of the Nov. 3 election, as she runs as the Democrats' nominee to succeed Eddie Butler.
"I watch everybody -- all the citizens -- go to the podium and offer their opinions and what they would like to see the Council do, and then the Council goes into private chambers and votes ... and I'd like to see them vote on what the public wants. If the public is who I'm supposed to be representing, then it's their wishes and desires that I should be carrying out."
The Belvedere Ridge resident, who grew up in Buffalo, N.Y., is looking to be the next representative of Aiken County Council District 5. The experience of going door-to-door, she said, has been surprising. She noted that a typical response is something like, "Oh, I get all kinds of things in the mail, but nobody has ever actually come to my door."
Hamilton's current professional role is at Aiken Regional Medical Centers, where she is a therapist in the geriatric unit. "My mornings are spent on the geriatric unit, working with dementia and Alzheimer's patients, and in the afternoon, I work with the adult population suffering from depression, anxiety and substance abuse."
She has shifted gears a few times since moving to South Carolina in 1990, at the age of 26, when her mother got a job transfer and Hamilton made the move with her. "I lived in Columbia until three years ago, when I moved to North Augusta," the candidate said.
She pointed out that her bachelor's degree, from USC, is in both psychology and Spanish, and her master's degree is in social work. "I had originally planned on being a teacher to help with teenagers, because I was doing volunteer work at LRADAC," she said, referring to the Lexington-Richland Alcohol and Drug Abuse Commission.
"I was volunteering as a counselor with the drug court program. It's for individuals who have been convicted of a drug crime, and instead of going to jail, they go to a rehab program."
Her background also includes service as a program director for a high-management group home for teenage girls ("or adolescent females") in Greenwood, supported by Lutheran Family Services. That home, however, became a casualty of state budget cuts.
From there, she moved on to work in dialysis for five years, and from that perspective, she "started to recognize the lack of community resources for senior citizens or the chronically ill."
Those experiences, in turn, led her to run for office. "The budget keeps getting cut back with the Council on Aging which started Best Friend Express, so that individuals can't get to medical appointments," she said, referring to the bus service that reaches from Aiken to North Augusta and back several times each weekday.
"I wish there were fewer private-session votes," she said, referring to Aiken County Council procedures and the concept of "budgets being decided based on the people who are present, rather than the entire community."
She cited the example of cuts in the Best Friend Express. Evening service is no longer offered, so some people who normally use the bus were unable to attend Council meetings to express their opinions, because meetings are held in the evening. Some of her former dialysis patients, in addition, were set back by the bus cuts, because Saturday bus service was eliminated, and many patients have Saturday dialysis appointments.
She also offered a reminder for the thousands of voters who declined to take part in the Sept. 15 election and Sept. 29 runoff. "The big reason why I think people should vote is because this is one election where every person's vote counts," Hamilton said, pointing out that the Nov. 3 turnout is likely to be low, making individual votes all the more precious.
Aside from her present political pursuits and hospital service, Hamilton maintains an active household despite being single, as her home team also includes "two dogs, a cat and a bearded dragon."
Her interests also mingle with her roots. "I am learning how to play the fiddle, because I'm very active in the Clan Hamilton Society, which is a Scottish heritage society. Basically, I go to all the Highlands games," she said, confirming her interest in Scottish country dancing and other aspects of her heritage. She is also a member of the St. Andrews Society, which celebrates along the same lines.
Bagpipes, voting and pets aside, she also noted another pastime -- one that might be described as a blend of American and Japanese influence. "I ride a motorcycle. It's a Yamaha V Star Classic."
When asked about her qualifications for office, she said, "The main thing is the fact that I'm a social worker. My whole job is advocating for people who cannot advocate for themselves, and the fact that I'm just an average, middle-class person, so basically I'm like everybody else in my district ... I understand what most of the voters in North Augusta have been going through, because I've been living it."
