WISCONSIN BLUE BOOK 1987-1988


                       THE WISCONSIN LEGISLATURE
Hotline: 1-(800)-362-9696 (toll-free); 266-9960 (Madison calls) - for status
of current
  legislation.
Number of Positions 1987 Legislature: Senate: 33 members, 220.00 employes;
Assembly: 99
  members, 237 employes.
Total Budget 1985-87: $38,712,300.
Statutory Reference: Article IV, Wisconsin Constitution; Chapter 13, Subchapter
I, Statutes.
  Election of Legislators. At the general election on the first Tuesday after
the first Monday in
November of the even-numbered years, the voters of Wisconsin elect the entire
membership of
the Assembly and one-half the membership of the Senate. These legislators-elect
assume office in
January of the odd-numbered year, when - together with the "holdover"
senators who still
have another 2 years to serve of their 4-year terms - they convene at the
State Capitol in Madi-
son to begin the next legislative session.
  In our state, all members of the legislature are elected from single-member
districts. These
districts are reshaped following each decennial federal census "according
to the number of in-
habitants." Reapportioning itself is one of the constitutional duties
of the legislature. Both
houses of the Wisconsin Legislature have been apportioned according to population
from the
beginning of the state, long before the U.S. Supreme Court decided that all
states must follow
this practice.
  The 33 senators are elected for 4-year terms from single-member districts
numbered from 1 to
33. The 16 senators representing even-numbered districts are elected in the
even-numbered years
in which the presidential elections occur. The 17 senators who represent
odd-numbered districts
are elected in the even-numbered years in which gubernatorial elections occur.


  On organization day at the start o] each legislative biennium, newly elected
legislators (all mem-
bers of the Assembly and half the Senate) take the oath of office. Here Representative
Marcia P.
Coggs and her granddaughter are greeted by Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice
William A. Bablitch
(photo courtesy of Assembly Democratic Caucus).


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