Roberts announces senate bid

MONTROSE — A small but dedicated group gathered Thursday morning to hear Rep. Ellen Roberts formally announce her bid for state senate in 2010.

Roberts, a Durango Republican who currently represents the 59th House District, hopes to replace term-limited Jim Isgar, D-Hesperus, as state senator for District 6. Senate District 6 includes Montrose County and Roberts’ House district.

“My interest is, now, to represent the bigger (portion) of Southwest Colorado in District 6,” she said, shortly before her public announcement on the steps of the Montrose County Courthouse.

Roberts, an attorney, was elected to the state house in 2006 and re-elected in 2008. She is the ranking Republican on the state Judiciary Committee, and sits on the Finance and Legislative Legal Services committees. She was this year appointed to the state’s special task force on economic recovery.

If she returns to the House in 2010, she will be the ranking Republican on the Health and Human Services Committee — and she was named the 2008 Legislator of the Year by Mental Health America of Colorado.

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