Another hopeful joins race for vacant District 23 Senate seat

Burrillville’s Heitke, former town councilor and judge, throws his hat in the ring

BURRILLVILLE — Kevin D. Heitke, a former Burrillville town councilor and municipal court judge, is running for the District 23 Senate seat being vacated by longtime state Sen. Paul W. Fogarty. Heitke said with Fogarty’s decision not to seek re-election, that void must be filled to protect the environment and secure state aid for the towns of northwest Rhode Island. “I have worked on many long-term projects with Sen. Fogarty, including continued protection of the RIPTA Bus 9 route; working for state aid for schools; protection of the environment; addressing the opioid epidemic; and maintaining the rural character of Rhode Island’s northwest quadrant,” he said. Heitke has been an attorney for 30 years, maintaining his practice, Heitke Cook Antoch, LLC, both in Providence and Burrillville. Heitke is a founding member of the Burrillville Land Trust and created a public forum for residents of Burrillville to ask questions of their elected officials in a format entitled “10 in 60,” in which a panel, made up of rotating town councilors, department heads and others, answered 10 previously-submitted questions in 60 minutes or less. Heitke was elected to the Burrillville Town Council in 2008 and has served as council liaison to the Zoning Board, Planning Board and Extended Care Program. He also serves as a board member on the Austin T. Levy Board of Administration. Heitke is an Honors Scholar from the University of Michigan, graduating in 1985 with a Bachelor of Arts in political science. He was accepted into Southwestern University School of Law’s SCALE program in 1985 and graduated with his Juris Doctor degree in 1987. Heitke worked as an associate with Morgan, Wenzel & McNicholas in Los Angeles from 1987 to 1990, then became a partner of Portnoy, Craven & Heitke in Providence, where he concentrated in Family Court and insolvency issues He started his own firm in 1996 and added a partner and an associate in 2011. The firm continues to focus on the intersection of Family Court and debtor/creditor litigation. Heitke currently serves on the Attorney Advisory Committee to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Rhode Island. He is also is a member of the committee’s Loss Mitigation Subcommittee. Heitke and his wife, Jo-Ann, a local businesswoman, have three, college-educated children. Also running for the District 23 seat are Paul Roselli of Burrillville, president of the Burrillville Land Trust; John Pacheco III, a member of the Burrillville Town Council; and Jessica de la Cruz of North Smithfield. Fogarty held the seat for two decades. The chairman of the Senate Labor Committee, Fogarty, 61, is a Democrat who was first elected to Senate District 27 in 1998, when the legislative body had 50 members. He has represented District 23 (Burrillville, Glocester and North Smithfield) since 2003, when the Senate was downsized to 38 members and districts were reconfigured. Fogarty is part of a political clan with a household name in northern Rhode Island politics stretching back generations. He is the nephew of former Congressman John E. Fogarty, who held office for 26 years – from 1941 until his death in 1967. He is also the brother of former Lt. Gov. Charles Fogarty, who held that position from 1998 to 2007. His father was Charles Fogarty Sr., a former state senator and onetime director of the Rhode Island Small Business Administration.