Jana Della Rosa

Jana Wootton Della Rosa (born 1976)^[1] is a homemaker in Rogers, Arkansas, who is a conservative Republican member of the Arkansas House of Representatives for Benton and Washington in the northwestern corner of her state.^[2]

Background

Della Rosa graduated in 1994 from Springdale High School in her native Springdale in Washington and Benton counties.^[3] In 2000, she received a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville in Washington County.^[4]

At the university, she met her husband, Russell James Della Rosa (also born 1976) and a native of Tontitown in Washington County. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering. To remain within northwestern Arkansas, Russell became employed as a software engineer in Fayetteville. Jana accepted an entry level sales analyst position in Fayetteville with Ozark Consulting and Marketing, a firm which assists small businesses in the sale of their goods to Walmart and Sam's Club. In 2002, she joined the Bentonville-based outlet for Church & Dwight, a firm based in Ewing, New Jersey. During her ten years there, she was placed in charge of the sale of all laundry products to Walmart. She left her position in 2012 to become a full-time homemaker. She and Russell have two sons, Reagan and Riley.^[3]

Della Rosa lists her religious affiliation as Christian.^[2]

Political life

Della Rosa defeated two intra-party opponents, Paul Gene Caldwell (born c. 1977) of Lowell and Mike Kirby Whitmore (born 1959), an accountant from Rogers, in the Republican primary held on May 20, 2014, for the District 90 nomination to the state House. Della Rosa received 1,195 votes; Caldwell, 817, and Whitmore, 274. The three-term incumbent Republican, Skip Carnine of Rogers, was term limited. Della Rosa was then unopposed In the November 4 general election in a heavily Republican year statewide.^[5]

Representative Della Rosa holds these committee assignments: (1) Public Transportation Committee, the committee for City, County, and Local Affairs and Joint Performance Review.^[2]

In February 2015, Della Rosa joined dozens of her fellow Republicans and two Democrats in co-sponsoring legislation submitted by Representative Lane Jean of Magnolia, to reduce unemployment compensation benefits. The measure was promptly signed into law by Republican Governor Asa Hutchinson.^[6]

That same month Della Rosa supported House Bill 1228, sponsored by Republican Bob Ballinger of Carroll County, which sought to prohibit government from imposing a burden on the free exercise of religion.^[7] The measure passed the House, seventy-two to twenty.^[8] One of the opponents, Representative Camille Bennett, a former city attorney for Lonoke, Arkansas, called for a reworking of the legislation.^[9] Bennett claimed the Ballinger bill would establish a "type of religious litmus test" which could impact nearly any law under consideration by the legislature.^[10] The measure was subsequently passed by a large margin in the House and signed into law in revised form, SB 975, by Governor Hutchinson.^[11]

Della Rosa is a member of the board of directors of the conservative political action committee Conservative Arkansas. Her mother, Patsy Ann Wootton (born c. 1949) of Springdale, is the executive director of Conservative Arkansas and one of the group's founding members. She is strongly pro-life and a defender of the Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.^[4]

References