A general approach has been developed for the preparation of heteroleptic tris(bidentate)ruthenium(II) complexes which exhibit significant continuous light absorption throughout the UV and visible regions. It utilizes separate metal-to-ligand charge transfer (MLCT) transitions to different heterocyclic ligands and the incorporation of the diethyldithiocarbamate anion (Et2dtc-) to shift the MLCT bands uniformly to the red. In the spectrum of [Ru{(EtCO2)2bpy}(dpa)(Et2dtc)]+ ((EtCO2)2bpy is 4,4’-bis(carboxyethyl)-2,2’-bipyridine) significant absorption (epsilon > 3000) extends past 700 nm. These complexes can be photochemically inert and exhibit near-IR emission with appreciable excited state lifetimes.