West Virginia Supreme Court candidate Beth Walker says if elected to the state’s highest court, her goal is to lead by example.

“I’m not seeking to begin a political career,” Walker told The Register-Herald’s editorial board. “I just want to be a good judge and lead by example.”

Walker is a Republican; two seats on the court are open and will go to the top two vote-getters.

Walker says politics must be taken out of the court in order to take away the appearance of impropriety.

“A judge should be non-political, even though they are running for office,” she said. “We ought to have judges willing to change their lives a little bit and act in a way that doesn’t portray them as biased toward one side or another in any case. We don’t need political judges ... we need fair judges.”

Walker says there are already rules in place for when judges should recuse themselves from a case.

“I know how those rules apply,” she said.

Walker says an example is Walker Machinery, which is owned by her husband’s family.

“I don’t have any business sitting in judgment of any cases Walker Machinery is a party to,” she said. “It’s the harder areas or gray areas that are concerning and we must have judges we can trust in those areas. We can’t just recuse ourselves from every case, but if it is going to be a question in my mind that there is an appearance of impropriety, I would take myself off the case.”

Walker says there needs to be more disclosure.

“Judges have said they are friends with this person or that person,” she explained. “Well, if I’m friends with someone, even if I think I can be non-biased, I would disclose that to the parties to let them know and then consider the matter from there.”

Walker graduated from Hillsdale College in 1987 and went on to receive her law degree from Ohio State University. She has served a member of the law firm Bowles Rice McDavid Graff & Love LLP for the past 17 years, specializing in labor and employment law.

Walker says candidates for a seat on the state’s highest court shouldn’t make promises about how they will rule on a case.

“I look at it like a referee in a football game — judges should remain fair and impartial,” she said.

Walker was asked her position on the nonpartisan election of judges.

“I do think the state Legislature should think about making this race nonpartisan,” she said. “It would take out some of the politics and would certainly shorten the election cycle with only one election during the primary.”

Walker faces an uphill battle in a state where Democratic Party voter registrations significantly outnumber Republican registrations, with 665,234 Democrats, 347,760 Republicans and 156,199 registered independents.

“We are one of only seven states that elects judges for its highest court in partisan elections,” Walker said. “West Virginia’s Constitution permits the Legislature to have a nonpartisan election. I don’t think a judge should be an activist in either direction.”

Walker highlighted her commitment to the Second Amendment and to traditional values, like being tough on crime.

“Cases shouldn’t be based on the impact to the economy,” she said. “Cases should be based on the law and the individual case. I think what has had a bigger impact on our state’s economy has been when judges are deciding cases with the end in mind. They should be decided based on the law.”

Walker said she believes that when you look at some of the decisions made by the Supreme Court, it’s apparent someone had an agenda.

“What has resulted is a complete lack of predictability for folks,” she said. “When the rules are always changing, it doesn’t always serve us well.”

Walker says West Virginia still hasn’t been able to shake its “tort hellhole” reputation.

“We’ve still receiving those labels, and sometimes, perception is reality,” she said.

Walker said at a recent dinner she attended, a Toyota official talked about what West Virginia is like.

“He said West Virginians have a great work ethic, people who want to work hard and take care of their families, how beautiful it is, the low cost of living and all of those good things. But when the conversation came to challenges, the very first thing he pointed out negatively is our court system. Here’s a guy who doesn’t have any stake in the Supreme Court election. He was just making a non-biased observation. But I think we can change it, with the help of the Legislature.”

Walker says a justice’s job is to interpret the law and not try to make laws from the bench.

“We have our elected delegates and senators if more tort reform should be enacted or making other policy decisions on how the state’s money should be spent, what the rules and regulations should be,” she said. “That’s not the Supreme Court judge’s job. That’s why there are three branches of government and everyone has a different role. When one branch or another starts trying to do the other one’s job, that’s when we have a government that’s not performing the way it ought to be.”