William Donald "Bill" Heath, Jr. (born October 20, 1959) is a former Republican Georgia state senator who served from 2005 to 2021. He served as the Senate Floor Leader for Governor Sonny Perdue. Prior to his election to the state senate, Heath served one two-year term in the Georgia House of Representatives.
Political career Bill Heath's first foray into electoral politics was in 2000, when he challenged Tom Murphy, the Democratic Speaker of the Georgia House of Representatives, for the 18th State House District. Murphy had held the seat since 1960, and had skated to reelection time and again.
Despite the state Republican Party taking no initial interest in the race, a very competitive race would materialize. Heath would raise over $60,000, a very competitive sum for a State House race.Chapman, Dan: "Taking on Mr. Speaker; A Political Newcomer is Giving Tom Murphy his Toughest Race in Years", p.1F, 2000 Aiding Heath was the ongoing shift in the district's demographics, with the district becoming more suburban and more Republican as Atlanta's outer suburbs had begun bleeding into the district; Republican candidates for other offices had frequently won the districtPruitt, Kathey: "Showdown in Haralson: Legendary Speaker Murphy Faces Stiffest Challenge", p. 3D, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 2000.Chapman, Dan: "Taking on Mr. Speaker; A Political Newcomer is Giving Tom Murphy his Toughest Race in Years", p.1F, 2000. Heath would lose the race by 505 votes, a margin of less than two percentage points.
Heath finally defeated Murphy in 2002, in the final race of Murphy's life. The loss was widely attributed to Murphy's role in the 2001 redistricting, which produced contorted districts that confused and angered voters.
Upon taking his seat in the Georgia House, Heath acquired national attention in 2004, when he added a ban on adult women's ability to choose to get genital piercings onto a bill designed to ban the genital mutilation of children. Adult men would still have been allowed to choose to have their genitals pierced under Heath's amendment. The attention arose from both the difference in the way Heath's amendment treated women and men and from Heath's seeming lack of knowledge regarding the practice he proposed to legislate. The amended bill passed the House 160-0, forcing it back to the Georgia Senate.
Email Controversy In 2013, after an online petition generated by the group Better Georgia, Heath was condemned for his response to legislature creating a $150,000 a year position for former Majority Leader Chip Rogers at Georgia Public Broadcasting. Heath dismissed those who signed the petition as "childish" in an email response, and hid in the Secretary of the Senate Office refusing to take questions from the press.
Election history + Election history of Bill Heath Year Office Election Subject Party Votes % Opponent Party Votes % Opponent Party Votes %2000Georgia House, 18th DistrictPrimaryBill HeathRepublican627100.02000Georgia House, 18th DistrictGeneralBill HeathRepublican6,56248.1Tom Murphy (incumbent)Democratic7,06751.92002Georgia House, 18th DistrictPrimaryBill HeathRepublican2,989100.02002Georgia House, 18th DistrictGeneralBill HeathRepublican6,43153.9Tom Murphy (incumbent)Democratic5,49546.12004Georgia Senate, 31st DistrictPrimaryBill HeathRepublican5,21731.0James GarnerRepublican5,04630.0Mason RountreeRepublican6,54238.92004Georgia Senate, 31st DistrictPrimary RunoffBill HeathRepublican5,34250.6Mason RountreeRepublican5,21549.42004Georgia Senate, 31st DistrictGeneralBill HeathRepublican37,82265.1Lester TateDemocratic20,30234.92006Georgia Senate, 31st DistrictPrimaryBill Heath (incumbent)Republican6,200100.02006Georgia Senate, 31st DistrictGeneralBill Heath (incumbent)Republican25,87568.0Tracey BennettDemocratic12,15632.02008Georgia Senate, 31st DistrictPrimaryBill Heath (incumbent)Republican10,658100.02008Georgia Senate, 31st DistrictGeneralBill Heath (incumbent)Republican47,85966.5Tracey BennettDemocratic24,08633.5
External links Official Senate Website Official Biography Campaign Website
References