Sanford Edmund Lee (born October 11, 1947) is an American politician. He served in the

Colorado Senate The Colorado State Senate is the upper house of the Colorado General Assembly, the state legislature of the US state of Colorado. It is composed of 35 members elected from single-member districts, with each district having a population of abou ...

from the 11th district as a member of the Democratic Party. Prior to his tenure in the state senate he served in the

Colorado House of Representatives The Colorado House of Representatives is the lower house of the Colorado General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Colorado. The House is composed of 65 members from an equal number of constituent districts, with each distri ...

from the 18th district.

Early life

Sanford Edmund Lee graduated from

Ohio Wesleyan University Ohio Wesleyan University (abbrevriated OWU) is a private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Delaware, Ohio, United States. It was founded in 1842 by Methodist leaders and Ohio Valley, Centra ...

with a

bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

degree in 1970, attended

Wharton School of Finance The Wharton School ( ) is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia. Established in 1881 through a donation from Joseph Wharton, a co-founder of Bethlehem Steel, the Wharton ...

from 1970 to 1971, and graduated from the

University of Akron School of Law University of Akron School of Law is the law school at the University of Akron in Akron, Ohio. Offering both Juris Doctor and Master of Laws degrees, it was founded in 1921 as the Akron School of Law and merged with the University of Akron in ...

with a

Juris Doctor A Juris Doctor, Doctor of Jurisprudence, or Doctor of Law (JD) is a graduate-entry professional degree that primarily prepares individuals to practice law. In the United States and the Philippines, it is the only qualifying law degree. Other j ...

in 1975. He married Lynn, with whom he had three children.

State legislature

Elections

Lee ran for a seat in the

from the 18th district and defeated Republican nominee Karen Cullen in the 2010 election. He defeated Republican nominee Jennifer George,

Libertarian Libertarianism (from ; or from ) is a political philosophy that holds freedom, personal sovereignty, and liberty as primary values. Many libertarians believe that the concept of freedom is in accord with the Non-Aggression Principle, according ...

nominee Robert Melamede, and

Constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed. When these pri ...

nominee Amy Fedde in the 2012 election. He defeated Republican nominee Michael Schlierf in the 2014 election. He defeated Republican nominee Cameron Forth and Libertarian nominee Norman Dawson in the 2016 election. Michael Merrifield, a member of the

from the 11th district, did not seek reelection in the 2018 election. Lee announced his campaign on September 2, 2017, and defeated Republican nominee Pat McIntire. A petition was issued in 2019 to

recall Recall may refer to: * Recall (baseball), a baseball term * Recall (bugle call), a signal to stop * Recall (information retrieval), a statistical measure * ReCALL (journal), ''ReCALL'' (journal), an academic journal about computer-assisted langua ...

Lee, but it was unsuccessful. He did not run for reelection in

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

Tenure

During Lee's tenure in the state house he served on the Education committee and chaired Judiciary committee. During his tenure in the state senate he chaired the Judiciary committee and served as vice-chair of the Finance committee. Lee supported

Amy Klobuchar Amy Jean Klobuchar ( ; born May 25, 1960) is an American politician and lawyer serving as the Seniority in the United States Senate, senior United States Senate, United States senator from Minnesota, a seat she has held since 2007. A member o ...

during the

2020 Democratic presidential primaries Presidential primaries and caucuses were organized by the Democratic Party to select delegates to the 2020 Democratic National Convention to determine the party's nominee for president in the 2020 election. The primaries and caucuses took p ...

. In 2022, Lee was indicted by a grand jury for registering to vote at an address where he did not live, but Judge Eric Bentley dismissed the case due to incorrect residency information being provided to the prosecution.

Political positions

Lee voted against

legislation Legislation is the process or result of enrolling, enacting, or promulgating laws by a legislature, parliament, or analogous governing body. Before an item of legislation becomes law it may be known as a bill, and may be broadly referred ...

that required Colorado's public employee pension fund to oppose

Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) is a nonviolent Palestinian-led movement promoting boycotts, divestments, and economic sanctions against Israel. Its objective is to pressure Israel to meet what the BDS movement describes as Israel's ...

. Lee was among thirty-seven legislators who endorsed a letter in 2018, calling for

Planned Parenthood The Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc. (PPFA), or simply Planned Parenthood, is an American nonprofit organization

to allow for their workers to form a union. He supported legislation to prohibit the

death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in s ...

. Lee received an A rating from

NARAL Pro-Choice America Reproductive Freedom for All, formerly NARAL Pro-Choice America and commonly known as simply NARAL ( ), is a non-profit 501(c)(4) organization in the United States that engages in lobbying, politics, political action, and advocacy efforts to op ...

. His scores from the

American Civil Liberties Union The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is an American nonprofit civil rights organization founded in 1920. ACLU affiliates are active in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. The budget of the ACLU in 2024 was $383 million. T ...

ranged from 88% in 2013, 100% in 2014, 40% in 2015, 100% in 2016, 100% in 2017, 100% in 2018, and 80% in 2019.;
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Electoral history

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Pete 1947 births Living people Colorado lawyers Democratic Party members of the Colorado House of Representatives Ohio Wesleyan University alumni Politicians from Colorado Springs, Colorado University of Akron alumni Wharton School alumni Democratic Party Colorado state senators 21st-century members of the Colorado General Assembly