Existing comment:
Senator Fred Risser (b. 1927)
Longest-Serving Legislator
"It keeps the adrenaline going and it gets you up in the morning. You learn something new every day."
-- Risser on being a legislator
Democrat Fred Risser of Madison is the longest-serving state lawmaker in the country. His father, grandfather, and great-grandfather all served in the Legislature, too. His family has been in politics since the Civil War.
Risser was first elected in 1956. He remembers that when he was elected to the Senate in 1962, there were no women or minorities serving in that body. "In fact," he told an NPR reporter, "they didn't even have a woman's john on the legislative floor."
Risser has supported bills protecting women's rights, cleaning up the environment, supporting the University of Wisconsin–Madison, promoting clean indoor air, and expanding public transportation, among many other things. Decades ago, he helped pass a law enabling public employees to unionize. He said, "The bill that the governor gutted [with 2011's Act 10] was one I had helped put through 50 years ago."
Risser has held virtually every important position in the Senate. He has also served on both the State Building Commission and the State Capitol and Executive Residence Board, and took a deep personal interest in the renovation of the Capitol during the Thompson administration. |