Stratton Rollins Heath Jr. (born December 28, 1937) is an American politician and former state legislator in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...

who previously served as the

Colorado State Senate The Colorado 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 about 123,0 ...

Assistant Minority Leader. Elected to the Colorado State Senate as a Democrat in 2008, Heath represented Senate District 18, which encompasses Boulder, Colorado and portions of

Boulder County Boulder County is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado of the United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 330,758. The most populous municipality in the county and the county seat is Boulder. Boulder County comprises th ...

. Heath served as State Senate Majority Caucus Leader from October 2013 to 2014. Prior to winning elective office, Heath was the founding chairman of

ProgressNow ProgressNow, previously the Rocky Mountain Progressive Network, is a progressive 501(c)(4) advocacy organization in the United States. Founded in 2003, ProgressNow bills itself as a network of state based communications hubs which act as a marketin ...

, a progressive advocacy organization. Term limited, he did not run for re-election in the 2016 elections, so his term ended in January 2017. Heath is a member of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Boulder.

Political career

Heath was the Democratic nominee for governor in

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains independence from Indonesia and ...

. He lost to incumbent Republican governor Bill Owens.

Legislative career

2008 election

Heath faced

University of Colorado The University of Colorado (CU) is a system of public universities in Colorado. It consists of four institutions: University of Colorado Boulder, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, University of Colorado Denver, and the University o ...

Regent Cindy Carlisle in the August 12, 2008, 18th District Democratic primary, defeating her 56% to 44%. Heath was unopposed in the November 2008 general election. Heath's candidacy was endorsed by the ''

Denver Post ''The Denver Post'' is a daily newspaper and website published in Denver, Colorado. As of June 2022, it has an average print circulation of 57,265. In 2016, its website received roughly six million monthly unique visitors generating more than 13 ...

'' and the '' Boulder Daily Camera''.

Colorado General Assembly

For the 2009 session of the Colorado General Assembly, Heath was named to seats on the Senate Business, Labor, and Technology Committee, the Senate Education Committee, and the Senate Finance Committee. In November 2008, Heath was named to a special legislative Committee on Job Creation and Economic Growth, tasked with developing recommendations on bolstering Colorado's economy before the 2009 legislative session. Heath has sponsored legislation to re-instate the Colorado Credit Reserve program to assist small businesses in obtaining loans, and in 2008 announced plans to sponsor legislation to provide matching funds to startup companies in the "clean energy" field. On October 9, 2013, Heath was elected as Majority Leader of the Colorado State Senate after the preceding Majority Leader Morgan Carroll was elected to replace recalled Colorado State Senator John Morse as president of the Colorado Senate.

References

External links

*
Rollie Heath at Colorado General Assembly

Rollie Heath at Project Vote Smart
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Heath, Rollie 1937 births Democratic Party Colorado state senators Living people 2016 United States presidential electors University of Wisconsin Law School alumni 21st-century American politicians Candidates in the 2002 United States elections