[2] In 1982, Roberts married; she and her husband, Rick, have two children: Caitlin and Ben,[4] both of whom have attended Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado.

[citation needed] Roberts began to re-enter politics after the death of her father in 1992, first focusing on hospice and health care issues.

[4][11][12] She was a member of the Citizens Health Advisory Council, the High Noon Rotary Club, and sat on the boards of First National Bank[2] and the Community Foundation Serving Southwest Colorado.

[4] In December 2004, only a month after Larson was elected to his fourth and final term in the state house, Roberts filed for a 2006 candidacy to seek his seat.

[19][20][21] Although both Roberts and her main opponent, Democrat Joe Colgan, signed a clean campaign pledge, controversy arose over advertisements run by outside sources.

[23] Direct mail flyers sent by right-leaning outside groups during the last weeks of the campaign also misrepresented both candidates' stances on immigration, exaggerating the contrast between their positions.

[25] Roberts significantly outraised her opponents, donating over $8,000 to her own campaign,[26][27][28] and ultimately winning the November 2006 general election with 52 percent of the vote.

[35] Roberts carried legislation which revised Colorado's surface rights laws, requiring oil and gas companies to minimize the impacts of drilling.

[36][37] The bill was weakened by lobbying from the Colorado Oil and Gas Association,[38] but represented a breadth of reform that had failed to pass in previous legislative sessions.

[41] Her only unsuccessful bill was a measure to tighten the rules under which cigar bars could claim exemptions from Colorado's indoor smoking ban.

[58] In March, she backed a proposal to require that insurance companies offer low-cost health care benefit packages for Coloradoans, as part of a "public-private" plan towards achieving universal coverage.

[62] She proposed extending the public hearing process as a means of providing additional input on ballot measures,[63] and, in February 2008, was appointed to a six-member legislative panel tasked with developing recommendations for constitutional reform.

The proposal, which would have diverted excess revenues under TABOR to K-12 education, was regarded as a sweeping revision to competing constitutional mandates;[68][69] it was not passed by the General Assembly,[49] but was advanced as a citizens' initiative.

[80] Roberts was also named to a Republican task force charged with making recommendations on resolving the state's projected budget shortfall.

[90] Other legislation that Roberts carried in 2010 included a bill to allow voluntary income tax contributions to support 2-1-1 services,[91] and she fought against cuts to the Native American tuition waiver program at Fort Lewis College.

[92][93] Roberts was one of only three Republican House members to vote in support of Colorado's 2010 budget,[94] after successfully sponsoring an amendment that removed restrictions on Fort Lewis College's ability to set its own out-of-state tuition rates.

[103] Roberts also sponsored a contentious piece of legislation with general election opponent Sen. Bruce Whitehead, negotiated by Governor Ritter's office, to require utilities to convert some Front Range coal-fired power plants to natural gas.

[82][107] After Isgar resigned from the legislature in July 2009 to head the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Development office in Colorado,[108][109] Democrats appointed civil engineer Bruce Whitehead to the seat; Whitehead declared his intention to run for a full term in 2010, setting up a race that Colorado Republicans viewed as one of their best opportunities to pick up a seat in the Democrat-controlled legislature.

[110] Roberts' 2010 campaign for the Senate seat also faced a challenge in the Republican primary from former Norwood, Colorado town marshal Dean Boehler, who campaigns as a self-described "true conservative;"[111] Boehler received 67 percent of delegate votes at the Republican district assembly to Roberts' 33, earning him the top spot on the August primary ballot.

[citation needed] Senator Roberts proposed legislation at the start of session regarding the surety bond required for towing carriers in rural areas.