Press Release
CC/WI Urges UW Regents to Adopt Uniform Student Photo IDs Compliant with Voter ID Law for All Institutions
Phone: (608) 512-9363 | Email: jheck@commoncause.org
Jay Heck became the executive director of Common Cause in Wisconsin (CC/WI) in 1996. CC/WI is Wisconsin’s largest non-partisan citizens reform advocacy organization with over 9,000 members and activists. Wisconsin’s major newspaper editorial boards and pro-reform legislators of both major political parties consider CC/WI to be one of Wisconsin’s most effective and influential state reform organizations. Heck is currently the longest serving Common Cause state director in the country.
CC/WI and other fair maps advocates were instrumental in the establishment of fairer, more completive state legislative voting maps, which Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers signed into law in February 2024. Heck and CC/WI are also key activists in combating voter suppression and fighting to expand voting rights and access to the ballot in Wisconsin. And under Heck, CC/WI has been a leading state proponent for fairer and more impartial state courts at all levels.
Heck moved to Wisconsin in 1988 from Washington, DC to serve as a top assistant to the Wisconsin Senate Majority Leader, Joseph Strohl and was the Associate Director of the State Senate Majority Democratic Caucus. He had previously spent seven years as Legislative Director for U.S. Congressman Peter H. Kostmayer (D-PA). In 1980, Heck served on the national campaign staff of Independent U.S. Presidential candidate, Congressman John B. Anderson (R-IL).
He is a native of Cleveland, Ohio and graduated with honors from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio with degrees in political science and history. His two adult children live and work in Bangkok, Thailand and in Chicago.
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