Bonnie Campbell (lawyer)
| Bonnie Campbell | |
|---|---|
| 32nd Attorney General of Iowa | |
|
In office January 11, 1991 – January 6, 1995 |
|
| Governor | Terry Branstad |
| Preceded by | Tom Miller |
| Succeeded by | Tom Miller |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
April 9, 1948 Norwich, New York, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Education | Drake University (BA, JD) |
Bonnie J. Campbell (born April 9, 1948) is an American lawyer, a former Iowa Attorney General, a former Iowa gubernatorial candidate, a former official in the U.S. Department of Justice and a former federal judicial nominee to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.
Originally from Norwich, New York, Campbell moved to Washington, D.C. after completing high school and began working for a succession of politicians, including for United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Robert C. Weaver as a clerk-stenographer from 1965 until 1967. She then worked as a clerk for the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Intergovernmental Relations from 1967 until 1969. She joined the office of U.S. Sen. Harold Hughes as a caseworker from 1969 until 1974. Her work for Hughes brought her to Iowa, where she took a job with U.S. Sen. John Culver as a field office coordinator from 1974 until 1981.
During her time working for Senator Culver, Campbell pursued her undergraduate degree, earning a bachelor's degree from Drake University in 1982. She subsequently earned a law degree from Drake University Law School in 1984. She worked as a lawyer in private practice in Iowa from 1985 until 1991, and also was the chairwoman of the Iowa Democratic Party from 1987 until 1991.
In 1990, Campbell won election as Iowa's attorney general as a Democrat, defeating her Republican opponent, Ed Kelly. She is known most during her time as attorney general for having written an anti-stalking law that became a national blueprint. In 1994, Campbell ran for governor but lost to incumbent Gov. Terry Branstad by a margin of 57 percent to 42 percent. On March 21, 1995, President Clinton appointed Campbell to head the U.S. Department of Justice's newly created Office on Violence Against Women. Campbell's own family life helped to inform her experience in the role, given that her half-brother, Stephen Pierce, had been found guilty in 1975 of murdering a 16-year-old girl during a rape attempt. "In a sense, I suppose you could call it making amends," Campbell told People magazine in an article that appeared on November 20, 1995. "While I had nothing to do with Stephen's crime, it left a permanent scar on me."
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