Candidate for
State Senator; District 15

Jim Beall's vision and experience has pioneered new ways to help Silicon Valley's working families, seniors, foster care children, and people with disabilities.

His roots in Santa Clara County are deep. He was born in San Jose. He has lived his entire life in the city. As the oldest of ten children, and raised in a loving home, Jim learned early about responsibility -- not only for himself, but for others. Working in the fields, side-by-side with field hands picking crops, he learned the true value of a dollar through hard work as a teenager.

He would graduate from Bellarmine College Preparatory and earn a degree from San Jose State University, studying Urban Planning and Political Science. Jim has been married to his wife, Pat, for more than 25 years. They have two stepsons, Greg and Mark.

Jim served on the San Jose City Planning Commission before becoming the youngest person, at age 28, ever to be elected to the San Jose City Council. He would serve 14 years on the council. In 1996, he was elected to the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors.

As a supervisor, Jim balanced budgets in an era of dwindling revenue while managing to get break-through social programs passed, programs that have been copied across the nation. It was Jim Beall who launched the county's Children's Health Initiative, resulting affordable and comprehensive health coverage for 154,000 low-income children and saving taxpayers millions in public medical costs. It was Jim Beall who brought relief to Santa Clara County commuters by getting traffic projects + like Highway 85 and 87 + built on budget and on time, and laying the foundation for bringing BART to the South Bay. It was Jim Beall who partnered with food banks to pry $1 million in forgotten funds from an overlooked state emergency account to buy thousands of pounds of food to feed the hungry. It was Jim Beall who helped find jobs and transitional housing for emancipated foster care youth and made it easier for financially beleaguered foster care parents to keep their homes open for California's neglected and abused children.

And it was Jim Beall who's secured millions in funding over the past two decades for day care centers, parks, or hospitals, and to preserve our open space.

His philosophy of offering a "hand up not a hand-out" has been molded by 28 years in public life as a state Assemblyman, a San Jose city councilman, and a county supervisor. And it's been shaped by the thousands of hours he's devoted every year to working on transportation boards, collaborating with senior citizen commissions, health organizations, and discussing issues with citizens.