Six years after losing a race for Governor, the venerable Rollie Heath is headed to public office.  The 70-year-old retired Boulder businessman scored a 56%-44% victory over Cindy Carlisle to win the Democratic nomination for State Senate.  There is no Republican candidate for the seat being vacated by term-limited state Sen. Ron Tupa. 

Heath won’t be the typical freshman lawmaker: as a former Democratic standard bearer (he lost 63%-34% to Bill Owens in 2002), he’ll enter the Legislature with some gravitas.  That’s what happened with John Andrews, who lost 62%-35% to Roy Romer in the 1990 gubernatorial election and then went on to serve as Colorado Senate President.