One-Fourth of Assembly Will Be Newbies

Wisconsin State Capitol. Photo by Dave Reid.

As candidates for the 116 seats in the Legislature to be filled in November elections prepared to file nomination papers, one development stood out: One out of every four members of the 99-member Assembly will be new when they report to the Capitol in January.

Statements of non-candidacy filed with the Wisconsin Elections Commission, press releases and news stories show that 23 Assembly members – 10 Republicans and 13 Democrats – are retiring or seeking higher office. In three other Assembly districts, two Republican incumbents face each other in August primaries, which will also reduce the number of returning lawmakers.

Why the extensive turnover in what has been called “the Peoples’ House”? It’s the first legislative district maps in 12 years that weren’t drawn only by Republicans. The old maps, long criticized as “gerrymandered” by good government advocates, gave Republicans a two-thirds majority in the 33-member Senate and 64 seats in the Assembly.

The new maps, a compromise between Democratic Gov. Tony Evers and Republicans who have controlled the Legislature since 2011, open the door for a new generation of Assembly members.

The change in the Senate will not be as extensive, since 17 senators elected in 2022 do not have to run again this year. The biggest Senate fights will be in five districts where there is no incumbent.

However, the longest-serving legislator, Republican Sen. Rob Cowles, who spent four years in the Assembly and 37 in the Senate, chose to retire instead of moving to a new district or face a primary challenge from GOP Sen. Eric Wimberger.

“From the bottom of my heart, I want to thank everyone who wakes up every day working to make our great state an even better place,” Cowles, 73, of Green Bay, said in his announcement.

In the Assembly, 10 incumbent Republicans are retiring who have served an average of six years. Four of the nine have had 10 or more years in the Peoples’ House.

The longest-serving Assembly Republican who will retire is Rep. Warren Petryk, of Eau Claire, who party leaders had hoped would seek an eighth term in a new district.

But, in his retirement announcement, Petryk quoted the Bible – “To everything there is a season” – and the resignation letter of President George Washington: After “years of my life dedicated to its service with an upright zeal, [I hope] the faults of incompetent abilities will be consigned to oblivion, as myself must soon be.”

The three Assembly Republicans who retired after a decade in office are Reps. John Macco, of De Pere; James Edming, of Glen Flora, and Terry Katsma, of Oostburg, a member of the Legislature’s budget-writing Finance Committee.

Four first-term Assembly Republicans – Ellen Schutt, of Clinton; Ty Bodden, of Hilbert; Nik Rettinger, of Mukwonago, and Angie Sapik, of Lake Nebagamon – retired after seeing the new maps.

Thirteen of the 35 Assembly Democrats who have served an average of eight years will not return. That list includes seven women, so women may not again make up a majority of Assembly Democrats.

Of the 13 Assembly Democrats, five are running for two state Senate seats in Milwaukee and Dane counties. Two have been elected to other offices – Rep. Evan Goyke as Milwaukee city attorney and Rep. Marisabel Cabrera as a Milwaukee County Circuit Court judge. And Rep. Katrina Shankland, of Stevens Point, is running for the 3rd District seat in the U.S. House.

Four of the retiring Assembly Democrats – Goyke and Rep. Daniel Riemer, both of Milwaukee, Shankland and Rep. Tod Ohnstad, of Kenosha – each served 12 years.

In a May forum sponsored by WisPolitics, Assembly Democratic Leader Greta Neubauer said her party will have candidates in all 99 Assembly districts and the new maps give Democrats a chance to take control of the Assembly

“The retirements that we have are not in the most competitive seats,” Neubauer said. “We now have about 15 really competitive seats… We have to be very focused on those seats.”

At a March WisPolitics forum, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said new maps could let Democrats win 45 of the 99 Assembly seats.

Keeping a Republican majority is one of two challenges facing Vos, whose political opponents filed a second petition asking that the longest-serving Assembly speaker face a recall vote.

The state Elections Commission will decide whether the petition has the required number of signatures to trigger that recall vote, which would occur before Vos seeks an 11th term in November.

Steven Walters started covering the Capitol in 1988. Contact him at stevenscotwalters@gmail.com