The 61st Assembly District of Wisconsin is one of 99 districts in the Wisconsin State Assembly.[1] Located in southeastern Wisconsin, the district comprises part of southwest Milwaukee County, including the villages of Greendale and Hales Corners, most of the city of Greenfield, and parts of southwest Milwaukee and northeast Franklin.[2] The district is represented by Republican Amanda Nedweski, since January 2023.[3]
Wisconsin's 61st State Assembly district | |||||
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Assemblymember |
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Demographics | 80.33% White 4.18% Black 8.98% Hispanic 4.9% Asian 1.95% Native American 0.1% Hawaiian/Pacific Islander | ||||
Population (2020) • Voting age | 59,361 47,545 | ||||
Website | Official website | ||||
Notes | Southeast Wisconsin |
The 61st Assembly District is located within Wisconsin's 21st Senate district, along with the 62nd and 63rd Assembly Districts.[4]
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Greendale village hall
History edit
The district was created in the 1972 redistricting act (1971 Wisc. Act 304) which first established the numbered district system, replacing the previous system which allocated districts to specific counties.[5] The 61st district was drawn roughly in line with the boundaries of the previous Racine County 2nd district (the northern part of the city of Racine). The 61st district boundaries were relatively consistent in redistricting from 1972 to 2011, with the major exception of the 1982 redistricting, which scrambled all State Assembly districts and moved the 61st district to north-central Wisconsin for the 1983–1984 legislative session. That changed with the controversial 2011 redistricting plan (2011 Wisc. Act 43) which moved the district to Kenosha County—the territory which had been covered by the 61st district was then split between the 62nd and 66th Assembly districts. This was part of a larger gerrymandering plan for the Racine and Kenosha County districts to convert one Assembly seat and one Senate seat from tossups to safely Republican.
The 2024 redistricting (2023 Wisc. Act 94) again dramatically reshaped the 21st Senate district, moving the 61st district from Kenosha County to southwest Milwaukee County. Most of the area previously covered by the 61st district became the bulk of the new 32nd Assembly district.
List of past representatives edit
Member | Party | Residence | Counties represented | Term start | Term end | Ref. |
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District created | ||||||
James F. Rooney | Dem. | Racine | Racine | January 1, 1973 | January 3, 1983 | |
Sheehan Donoghue | Rep. | Merrill | Langlade, Lincoln, Marathon | January 3, 1983 | January 7, 1985 | |
Scott C. Fergus | Dem. | Racine | Racine | January 7, 1985 | July 1, 1990 | |
--Vacant-- | July 1, 1990 | January 7, 1991 | ||||
Robert L. Turner | Dem. | Racine | January 7, 1991 | January 7, 2013 | ||
Samantha Kerkman | Rep. | Randall | Kenosha | January 7, 2013 | June 7, 2022 | [6] |
--Vacant-- | June 7, 2022 | Current | ||||
Amanda Nedweski | Rep. | Pleasant Prairie | January 3, 2023 | Current | [3] |
References edit
- ^ "Assembly District 61". Wisconsin Legislature. Retrieved January 7, 2021.
- ^ "Wisconsin Legislative Districts - Assembly District 61 Boundaries". Wisconsin Legislature. Retrieved January 7, 2021.
- ^ a b "Representative Amanda M. Nedweski". Wisconsin Legislature. Retrieved January 3, 2023.
- ^ An Act ... relating to: legislative redistricting (Act 94). Wisconsin Legislature. 2023. Retrieved February 23, 2024.
- ^ Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau (1973). "Legislature" (PDF). In Theobald, H. Rupert; Robbins, Patricia V. (eds.). The state of Wisconsin 1973 Blue Book (Report). Madison, Wisconsin: State of Wisconsin. pp. 227–230. Retrieved January 22, 2021.
- ^ "Representative Samantha Kerkman". Wisconsin Legislature. Retrieved January 7, 2021.