Face The State Staff Report
State Rep. Ellen Roberts, R-Durango, launched a campaign for Senate District 6 Thursday.
RobertsState of Colo.
The district covers the southwest corner of Colorado, and Roberts already represents about half of the Senate district in the state House. SD 6 is one of the geographically largest districts in the state and covers eight counties: Archuleta, Dolores, La Plata, Montezuma, Montrose, Ouray, San Juan and San Miguel.
“It is critically important to have a strong rural advocate up at the Capitol,” said Roberts, who was a practicing attorney and 20-year resident of Durango.
Sen. Jim Isgar, D-Hesperus, currently represents SD 6 and will be term limited next year. He was first elected in 2002 after besting Republican Kay Alexander 53 to 46 percent. In 2006, Isgar strengthened his margin of victory and beat Republican challenger Ron Tate 60 to 40 percent. Despite Isgar’s popularity, voter registration numbers strongly favor Republicans who make up 40 percent of the electorate. Registered Democrats comprise 26 percent, with 32 percent of voters unaffiliated.
Earlier this year, Roberts received Face The State’s “Most Underappreciated” superlative award for being an underestimated power player in the state House. Despite a mixed reception from fellow conservatives, Roberts was a primary backer of 2008’s Referendum O, which would have differentiated between statutory and constitutional changes in signature-gathering requirements and introduce geographic diversity requirements for petitions for constitutional amendments. Despite its bipartisan backing, Ref. O was overwhelmingly rejected by voters.
Roberts said one of her top priorities would be promoting access to high quality health care in rural Colorado. Since being elected to the House in 2006, Roberts has sponsored eight health care bills that have been passed into law. “You have to have some intuition about where some of this legislation would hit our area,” she said.
So far no Democrat has declared arun for SD6. Colorado Democratic Party Chair Pat Waak did not return requests for comment.