Campbell makes eight running for court clerk
CRAIG COUNTY – With the entrance of Lisa Bradfield Campbell, there are eight people running for the Craig County Circuit Court Clerk’s seat in the Nov. 2 election.
Campbell, a former member of the Craig County Board of Supervisors, qualified to run by the Aug. 13 deadline, and formally announced this week that she is running as an independent candidate.
In addition to Campbell, the other candidates are current Clerk Sharon Braden who was deputy clerk before Clerk Peggy Bostic retired Dec. 31; Trevor Craddock, Billy Frazier, Sonja C. Jones, Sharon Oliver, Danielle Snider and Betty H. Wolfe. They are running to fill the five years remaining of Bostic’s eight-year term.
“I was not planning to run for the office initially,” said Campbell, “but after hearing repeated pleas for me to run for clerk of court, I decided I would be a good fit for the office.”
The 39-year-old pointed out she is a stickler for efficiency and organization, which are “the skills required for a constitutional office that lists over 800 responsibilities and duties, many of which are legally sophisticated and highly complex, and oh so vital to our community,” Campbell said in her written announcement.
She was raised in Craig County and graduated in 1988 from New Castle High School, as a member of the last class to graduate before Craig County High School opened .
Campbell and her husand, Chad, who is a computer programmer for Carilion, as well as being a musician, have three children: Whitney, who is an eighth-grader at Craig County Middle School; Brendan, a fifth-grader at McCleary Elementary, and 9-week-old Isaac.
Campbell served on the board of supervisors in 2004-2005, and was chairperson in 2005, when, she pointed out, she was instrumental in helping the county move forward with the computerized system now used by the county’s constitutional offices.
Lisa Bradfield Campbell
She is a member of the Craig County Tourism Commission, and was its chairman until recently. She was also a member of the founding group for the Craig County Public Library.
Other boards she has been active on include Craig’s representative on the Roanoke Valley Alleghany Regional Commission Board; an appointed member of the county’s Public Service Authority.
She also worked with the Camp Mitchell Board, coordinated Vacation Bible School for her church for several years in a row, she said, as well as planning two cross-country youth mission trips.
She volunteered with the Fairgrounds Association for a short time, Campbell said, and helps with the Craig County Recreation and Conservation Association when she can.
Campbell is a graduate of the Leadership Roanoke Valley program sponsored by the Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce.
She works for Sunapsys Inc., in Vinton, as the company’s business development manager. Campbell said that job brings her into contact with local and county governments throughout Virginia.
Campbell said she plans to use contacts she has made over the years to network with various clerks of court in the state, “using their knowledge and experience to bring change and improvements to our local clerk’s office.”
She pledged to base her campaign on “professionalism with a promise of friendly, timely and accurate delivery of services.”
Because she commutes to work now outside of Craig County, Campbell said if elected, she hopes to be able to offer business hours for all citizens of the County, “not just the ones who can get to the courthouse between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m.” She added she “wants the government to be as good as the people who live here.”
