That year, he was appointed by Governor George Romney to run a program for Michigan servicemen in Vietnam.
Headlee had come to the leadership of this group shortly after their attempt to pass a tax limiting provision failed in 1976.
In this position he was a supporter of the Tisch Amendment, which would have rolled back statewide taxes in Michigan and made increasing them subject to voter approval.
In 1985 Headlee was a key figure in recruiting Wayne County Executive Bill Lucas to be a Republican.
In the early 1990s this group authored a new provision the Headlee Initiative which limited to the growth of state spending to the rate of inflation.
[8] Headlee was also one of the advocates of the successful 1992 drive to enact term limits for all state level elected officials in Michigan, both in the executive and the legislative branch.
In the LDS Church, Headlee served twice as a bishop, ten years in a stake presidency and as a Regional Representative.
[12] Headlee funded the creation by Dennis Smith and placement of the "Signing of the Constitution" statues in the US embassies in Moscow and London in 1988.
On the occasion of his death he was memorialized as a "giant in Michigan History" by the conservative Mackinac Center for Public Policy.