Longtime political activist Nelda Bishop says she's running for the Davis County Commission so she can go to bat for the "little guys."
Bishop, who is challenging incumbent Gayle Stevenson, earned a law degree at age 45 and believes her background as a lobbyist, League of Women Voters activist, and volunteer legislative watchdog will serve her well at the county level.It doesn't hurt, either, that she's a woman, Bishop said, noting the county has never had a female commissioner in its 92-year history.
A former high school and university-level English teacher, Bishop, a Bountiful resident, is married to a physician and is
the mother of seven children.
Her 18-year association with the LWV is her strong point, Bishop said.
"We have studied many issues such as economic development, school finance, redevelopment agencies, air quality, the burn plant, water quality, day care, taxes, child abuse, the welfare system, and health care," she said.
Bishop has also been a voter registrar and state chair of Utah Common Cause, a volunteer watchdog organization.
"I believe that democracy depends on conducting the public business in public. That means we need good laws that require open and accountable government," Bishop said.
"It also means citizens must be watchdogs monitoring what public officials are doing."
During her 15 years with Common Cause, Bishop helped draft and lobbied for state laws requiring stronger ethics codes for public officials, campaign finance disclosures, lobbyist expenditure disclosures, open meetings laws, and government records access.
On the county level, Bishop has served on the Davis County United Way board, the board for the Turning Points program at the Davis Applied Technology Center, and on the county's Career Services Council, which arbitrates job complaints by county workers.
As an attorney, she volunteered her services for indigent clients, neglected children, and senior citizens. Bishop served on the state's election law task force and the Utah Tomorrow strategic planning committee.
But it's still the "little guy," struggling to make a living and support a family, that attracts her attention. Economic conditions make it necessary for most families in the county to have two incomes, Bishop said.
"We (in Davis County) are even higher than the national average for women working outside the home. When I see fathers delivering pizza for minimum wage as their second or third job, I know it would be unconscionable not to spend their tax dollars carefully," Bishop said.
"While I do not think gender should be the deciding factor in any election, I think by background makes me uniquely well- qualified and I think I would add a perspective that has never been represented," Bishop said.
"There has never been a woman on the Davis County Commission in 92 years."