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For freshman legislators, it's been baptism by fire

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Wisconsin budget protest photos

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Rep. Tyler August, R-Walworth, leaves the Assembly chamber Feb. 25, 2011 after legislative leaders cut off debate and voted to pass Gov. Scott Walker's controversial budget-repair bill. M.P. King/Wisconsin State Journal via AP

DELAVAN — Thoughts of pounding drums and political chants still reverberate in their heads. Visions of thousands of sign-carrying protesters filling the Capitol rotunda and square remain vivid in their memories. They have been praised, demonized, and in some cases threatened, since mid-February.

The freshman members of the Rock County and Walworth County legislative delegations have had a front-row seat to Badger State history in recent months, and helped make it along the way as debate raged over provisions in Gov. Scott Walker’s budget-repair bill that strip public-sector unions of much of their power.

“I look back and all I can say is, ‘Wow,’” said 32nd District Rep. Tyler August, R-Walworth.

“Sometimes, it wasn’t the safest environment,” he said of the union occupation of the Capitol. “We received a couple of threats and got thousands of calls and emails on both sides. The sheer volume was amazing. As grueling as it was, like during the 62 hours we were on the floor (debating the budget-repair bill), there is no place I’d rather be, and it has instilled in me why we need to do this. I’ll always remember those few weeks.”

The unusually large number of freshmen from the two counties are part of an unusually large freshman class in the Legislature — 30 in the 99-member Assembly and eight in the 33-member Senate. A majority of the newcomers are Republicans, swept into office in an election that gave the GOP control of all levers of state government. Some, though, were surprised by the scope of Walker’s proposal to restrict collective bargaining for state employees, while also requiring them to pay more for their retirement and health care.

Read the interviews with Rep. Tyler August, R-Walworth; Rep. Joe Knilans, R-Janesville; Rep. Amy Loudenbeck, R-Clinton; and Rep. Evan Wynn, R-Whitewater. State Rep. Janis Ringhand, D-Evansville, also is new to the Assembly, while Sen. Tim Cullen returned to Senate this term to round out the area legislative contingent. in the e-edition of Walworth County Sunday, HERE.