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

Colorado 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, ...

from the

11th district 11 (eleven) is the natural number following 10 and preceding 12. It is the first repdigit. In English, it is the smallest positive integer whose name has three syllables. Name "Eleven" derives from the Old English ', which is first attested i ...

as a member of the

Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...

. 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 distr ...

from the 18th district.

Early life

Sanford Edmund Lee graduated from

Ohio Wesleyan University Ohio Wesleyan University (OWU) is a private liberal arts college in Delaware, Ohio. It was founded in 1842 by methodist leaders and Central Ohio residents as a nonsectarian institution, and is a member of the Ohio Five – a consortium ...

with a

bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

degree in 1970, attended

Wharton School of Finance The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania ( ; also known as Wharton Business School, the Wharton School, Penn Wharton, and Wharton) is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private Ivy League research university in ...

from 1970 to 1971, and graduated from the

University of Akron School of Law The University of Akron School of Law is the law school at the University of Akron in Akron, Ohio, USA. Offering both the J.D. and LL.M. degrees, it was founded in 1921 as the Akron School of Law and merged with the University of Akron in 195 ...

with a

Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice law ...

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 Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

nominee Karen Cullen in the 2010 election. He defeated Republican nominee Jennifer George,

Libertarian Libertarianism (from french: libertaire, "libertarian"; from la, libertas, "freedom") is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, and minimize the state's e ...

nominee Robert Melamede, and

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

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 Michael Merrifield (born 1946/47) is an American politician from Colorado. He served four terms (2002-2010) as a Representative in Colorado House of Representatives, House District 18. He was chairman of the House Education Committee and also se ...

, a member of the

from the

, 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 (bugle call), a signal to stop * Recall (information retrieval), a statistical measure * ''ReCALL'' (journal), an academic journal about computer-assisted language learning * Recall (memory) * ''Recall'' (Overwatch ...

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

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; 2022 Sri Lankan protests, Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretari ...

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 lawyer and politician serving as the senior United States senator from Minnesota, a seat she has held since 2007. A member of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL), Minne ...

during the

2020 Democratic presidential primaries Presidential primaries and caucuses were organized by the Democratic Party to select the 3,979 pledged delegates to the 2020 Democratic National Convention held on August 17–20 to determine the party's nominee for president in the 2020 Unit ...

. 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 enrolled bill, enrolling, enactment of a bill, enacting, or promulgation, promulgating laws by a legislature, parliament, or analogous Government, governing body. Before an item of legislation becomes law i ...

that required Colorado's public employee pension fund to oppose

Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) is a 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 obligations ...

. 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 a nonprofit organization that provides reproductive health care in the United States and globally. It is a tax-exempt corporation under Internal Reve ...

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

death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

. Lee received an A rating from

NARAL Pro-Choice America NARAL Pro-Choice America, commonly known as simply NARAL ( ), is a non-profit 501(c)(4) organization in the United States that engages in lobbying, political action, and advocacy efforts to oppose restrictions on abortion, to expand access to ...

. His scores from the

American Civil Liberties Union The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1920 "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States". 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.;
;
;
;
;
;

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 of the University of Pennsylvania alumni 21st-century American politicians Democratic Party Colorado state senators