The Legislature’s Revolving Door

Wisconsin State Capitol. Photo by Dave Reid.

Of the 33 state senators in Wisconsin who served a decade ago, in the 2015-16 session, only eight are still senators. Five of the then-19 Republicans are still senators, and only three of 14 Democrats.

None of the 2015-2016 Senate leaders — Republicans Scott Fitzgerald and Mary Lazich and Democrats Jennifer Shilling and Dave Hansen — are still there. Fitzgerald is the 5th District member of the U.S. House; Shilling is a lobbyist; Lazich and Hansen retired.

One of those former senators, 7th District U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, is the presumptive Republican nominee for governor.
The turnover in the Assembly may even be higher, but that’s complicated by the election of nine of those 2015-2016 Assembly members to the Senate. One of the Assembly-to-Senate members, Melissa Agard, is the Dane County executive; former Republican Sen. Joan Ballweg lost her re-election bid last year.

There are many reasons for the Legislature’s revolving door.

The partisan divide and social media quickly put labels on candidates that are hard to shed. Democrats, who haven’t controlled the Senate or Assembly since 2010, grow frustrated at having their priorities ignored and at being reduced to speaking and voting against Republicans’ bills, so they often run for higher office or for better-paying local positions. Bipartisan compromise is usually now impossible. Races in contested districts require obscene amounts of money, forcing candidates to beg for campaign cash nonstop. Republican incumbents may be afraid of more conservative primary challengers or having to run in new districts drawn in 2024.

In a word, it’s not as much fun to be a legislator these days.

Gone is the era when Democratic Sen. Fred Risser, of Madison, could serve in the Senate for a record 58 years, and when three Republican Senators served for decades: Rob Cowles, of Green Bay, served for 38 years; Mike Ellis, of Neenah, for 32; and Dale Schultz, of Richland Center, for 23 years.

The in-and-out churn of the Senate surfaced recently with the announcement by two Republican senators — Steve Nass, of Whitewater, and Rob Hutton, of Brookfield — that they will not seek reelection in November.

The decision by Nass, whose 36 years as a legislator include 12 as a senator, was a surprise. Although he got 58% of the vote in 2022, the 73-year-old said he had grown weary of Capitol battles that included often voting against state budgets and other priorities of his fellow Republicans.

“I have always been bipartisan in my scorn of fiscal mismanagement and bureaucratic overreach regardless of whether the Republicans or Democrats were in charge, since the affliction of Big Government is a disease that infects both parties,” Nass said in his announcement.

“The time has come for a new fighter to take on … preserving life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” Nass added. “While the challenges are many facing the people of Wisconsin, the preservation of the American dream in this state will prevail if each of us rises up and in unison defends our inalienable rights bestowed upon us from God.”

Hutton’s Milwaukee-area Senate seat is targeted by Democrats because the first-term senator, who won with 53% of the vote four years ago, would have had to run in the new 5th District. Senate Democratic leaders have endorsed Democratic Rep. Robyn Vining as the party’s candidate.

In his announcement, Hutton, a business executive who served six years in the Assembly before his Senate election, said personal and career factors “made it clear that stepping aside is the right decision at this time.”

Senate Democrats are targeting the seats of three Republicans — Hutton, Joint Finance Co-chair Howard Marklein, of Spring Green, and Van Wanggaard, a 14-year veteran of the Senate from Racine — and trying to re-elect Democratic Sen. Jeff Smith of Eau Claire, who won with 50.4% of the vote in 2022.

Republicans hold an 18-15 majority in the Senate. If Democrats re-elect Smith and win two of those three Republican seats, they will control the Senate in the 2027-28 session.

Wanggaard has not yet said whether he will seek reelection. Senate Democratic leaders are backing Trevor Jung, Racine’s transit director, in the 21st District.

The five Republicans from the 2015-2016 session still in the Senate are Wanggaard, Nass, Marklein, Chris Kapenga, of Delafield, and Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu, of Oostburg. The three Democrats who are still senators are Tim Carpenter and Chris Larson, both of Milwaukee, and Robert Wirch, of Pleasant Prairie.

With the deadline to file nomination papers to run for the Legislature weeks away, expect more swings in that legislative revolving door.

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