100th Wisconsin Legislature

100th Wisconsin Legislature
← 99th 101st →
Wisconsin State Capitol
Overview
Legislative body	Wisconsin Legislature
Meeting place	Wisconsin State Capitol
Term	January 3, 2011 – January 7, 2013
Election	November 2, 2010
Senate
Members	33
Senate President	Michael G. Ellis (R) until July 17, 2012 Fred Risser (D) from July 17, 2012
President pro tempore	Joseph K. Leibham (R) until July 17, 2012 Tim Carpenter (D) from July 17, 2012
Party control	Republican until July 17, 2012 Democratic from July 17, 2012
Assembly
Members	99
Assembly Speaker	Jeff Fitzgerald (R)
Speaker pro tempore	Bill Kramer (R)
Party control	Republican
Sessions
Regular January 3, 2011 – January 7, 2013
Special sessions
Jan. 2011 Spec. January 4, 2011 – September 27, 2011 Jun. 2011 Extra. June 14, 2011 – August 1, 2011 Sep. 2011 Spec. September 29, 2011 – December 8, 2011

The One-Hundredth Wisconsin Legislature convened from January 3, 2011, through January 7, 2013, in regular session, though it adjourned for legislative activity on May 22, 2012. The legislature also held two special sessions and an extraordinary session during this legislative term.

This session was the start of eight years of unified Republican control of the governor's office and both chambers of the legislature. In this session, new governor Scott Walker pushed through the controversial 2011 Wisconsin Act 10, referred to at the time as the "Budget Repair Bill". The most controversial provision of the law was the stripping of state employees of collective bargaining rights. During consideration of the bill, mass protests erupted at the state capitol, and Democratic state senators fled the state in order to deny the Senate a quorum needed for budgetary legislation. Republicans in the state senate were eventually able to circumvent the quorum issue by stripping out all budgetary items from the bill and passing it as ordinary legislation. The session also saw passage of 2011 Wisconsin Act 43, the dramatic gerrymander which successfully locked in Republican control of the legislature for the next decade.

Following the outrage over Act 10, recall elections were held in 2011 and 2012 in which 13 state senators were challenged. Three were eventually removed from office and replaced by Democrats—one other resigned, but was replaced by a senator of the same party. The result was that Democrats briefly regained the senate majority in the second half of 2012. The governor was also subject to a recall election in 2012, but survived with roughly the same election margin as he had won in the 2010 election.

Senators representing odd-numbered districts were newly elected for this session and were serving the first two years of a four-year term. Assembly members were elected to a two-year term. Assembly members and odd-numbered senators were elected in the general election of November 2, 2010. Senators representing even-numbered districts were serving the third and fourth year of their four-year term, having been elected in the general election held on November 4, 2008.