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Legislator Profile - Representative Heather Carter A winner of several political donnybrooks, Representative Carter fought her way to the top of the legislator effectiveness ratings during the first session of Arizona's fiftieth Legislature. By shepherding all four of her introduced bills through the House and Senate and successfully persuading the Governor to sign them into law, she scored a perfect 1.000 - quite an accomplishment for a freshman legislator who was, to some extent, learning her job on the run. Representative Carter comes by her interest in politics naturally. A native of the mid-Atlantic region, she grew up just outside of Washington, D.C., where the local news is the world news and politics forms the wallpaper of everyday life. "Politics was always a part of our family's dinner conversations," the District 7 legislator recalls. Her father, the family patriarch and an Air Force veteran, worked for Wang Laboratories selling mainframe computers to the federal government. One of the company's top district managers, he declined a major promotion because he wasn't interested in uprooting his family from Maryland to relocate in Atlanta. Besides, they had a great life in Montgomery County, about forty-five miles outside of Washington, D.C. The family enjoyed a spacious house on a sixteen-acre parcel of land that included a pool and horse arena amid lots of open countryside. Eventually, the lure of the Sunbelt became too strong for Representative Carter's parents to resist. Arizona State University caught their collective eye when the Sun Devils registered an impressive victory in the school's first-ever Rose Bowl appearance in 1987. The family visited the Phoenix area the following summer, by which time the future representative had enrolled as a freshman at the University of Maryland. She was an active and well-adjusted young woman who showed horses, participated in student government and was a member of the college dance line. Then her parents dropped the bomb: "We are selling everything, bought a house in Phoenix, and moving in June. You're welcome to join us." After she recovered from her shock, Representative Carter chose to go west. In the fall of 1988, she enrolled as a student at Arizona State University and concurrently registered to vote as a new resident of Arizona. "First it was, 'Fear the Turtle' [as a University of Maryland Terrapin]. The next thing I knew it was, 'Fear the Fork,'" the representative recalls with a laugh. Following her graduation with a degree in communication, she multi-tasked her way through young adulthood, earning post-graduate degrees from both ASU and NAU and working in a series of demanding and interesting jobs. Among other things, she was a real estate agent, pharmaceutical sales representative, account executive for KOOL-FM radio and account executive for the Phoenix Suns. It was during her time in the world of professional sports that she met her husband of seventeen years, Jay Carter (whose brother, ASU Hall of Fame inductee Kendall, set an NCAA freshman record with 19 pitching victories in 1981). "Jay came in to buy Rattlers tickets," Representative Carter fondly recalls. The two courted throughout the Phoenix Suns Western Conference championship season of 1993. A particularly memorable date involved traveling together to Los Angeles to see the Suns defeat the Lakers in a playoff game. Demonstrating unrestrained team spirit, Representative Carter boarded their California-bound plane awash in purple and orange paint and toting hand-made signs in support of the visiting team. An image of the rabid fan was captured by a photographer and memorialized on the front page of the Arizona Republic and at the center of the team's annual yearbook. Of her many non-legislative jobs, the most rewarding was her five-year engagement as a public school teacher. "Nothing prepared me better for politics than teaching middle school," Representative Carter reflects. She rose to the many challenges presented to an urban teacher, succeeding where others had failed. Many of her students still keep in touch; several credit her with being their best teacher ever and helping them find a better track for their lives. As successful as she was as a teacher, Representative Carter found herself chronically frustrated by an institutionally inherent resistance to change and innovation. "Innovators in the public schools consistently run into policy brick walls," she observes. "We need smart people with entrepreneurial ideas making policy at the state level." Possessing those attributes herself, she was persuaded by friends to run for the Legislature in 2010. With a solid message, a keen understanding of the campaign process and good name identification, she ran in the Republican primary against seven other candidates for two open seats. Following an energetic campaign by the buoyant and positive candidate, Representative Carter emerged as a victor from her primary and went on to become the top vote-getter in the the District 7 House general election. With the mentality of a knowledge-hungry student, Representative Carter approaches her job at the Legislature with passion and vigor. "I always do my homework," she asserts. "When I started this job, I had never even heard of fiscal notes. Now I own them," she jokes. "I work at 150 miles per hour," the representative confesses. She reads and responds to every message she receives at seven different email accounts. She also works for her alma mater, Arizona State, serving as a clinical associate professor in the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College and teaching courses on computer literacy and education policy. As furiously as Representative Carter works, she does know when to turn it off and make time for herself and her family. She does her level best to avoid outside breakfasts, dinners and weekend events. "You need boundaries," she observes. "You need to protect family time. This job will swallow you whole if you let it." She acknowledges that the job of a legislator carries enormous responsibility but explains that there is great danger in permitting it to consume one's life: "You are a better legislator if you lead a balanced life. Without balance, you lose perspective." Helping her keep that balanced perspective is her nine-year-old daughter, Jacey, who has inherited her mother's passion for excellence. A natural horsewoman, Jacey is currently knee-deep in basketball, playing on a competitive girls basketball team and training with an NBA-credentialed professional coach. Representative Carter is also visibly proud of her husband, an entrepreneurial genius who has been recognized as one of the top realtors in the state. Representing Carefree, Cave Creek and portions of Scottsdale and Phoenix, Representative Carter espouses an appreciation for the prerogatives of cities and towns, and she neither shares nor understands the anti-city attitude harbored by some of her colleagues. Moreover, she is an ardent supporter of Arizona's system of state shared revenue. Expounding further on the pugilistic nature of the Irish, Bishop Sheen commented, "The more a man loves, the more a man fights for what he loves. They love God and country ... and so they fight for them." Motivated as she is by principled and enduring values, Representative Heather Carter is a sure bet to score many more public policy knock-outs and to ultimately take home a championship belt from the boxing ring that is life. |
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Legislative Bulletin is published by the League of Arizona Cities and Towns. Forward your comments or suggestions to league@azleague.org. |
