Scott Fitzgerald

Scott Fitzgerald
Wisconsin State Senate District 13
Incumbent
In office
1995 - Present
Term ends
January 3, 2015
Years in position	18
Party	Republican
Leadership
Majority Leader, Wisconsin State Senate
2011 - July 17, 2012, 2013-present
Minority Leader, Wisconsin State Senate
July 17, 2012 – 2013
Compensation
Base salary	$49,943/year
Per diem	$88/day
Elections and appointments
Last election	November 2, 2010
First elected	1994
Next election	November 4, 2014
Term limits	N/A
Education
Bachelor's	University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh, 1985
Personal
Birthday	11/16/1963
Place of birth	Chicago, IL
Profession	Business owner
Websites
Office website

Scott Fitzgerald (b. November 16, 1963) is a Republican member of the Wisconsin State Senate. He has represented District 13 since 1994. He has served as Senate Majority Leader from 2011 to July 2012 and since 2013. He served as Senate Minority Leader from July 17, 2012 to 2013.

Fitzgerald won a recall election on June 5, 2012.

Scott graduated from Hustisford High School in 1981 and earned his Bachelor of Science from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh in 1985.

Senator Fitzgerald worked in the newspaper business for nearly ten years. Fitzgerald purchased and ran the Dodge County Independent News, Juneau, WI, in 1990 and sold it in 1996 to the Watertown Daily Times where he was retained as an associate publisher for a number of years.

Fitzgerald joined the US Army Reserve in 1981 and was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Armor Branch in 1985. In his 23 years of service, he served in a number of challenging assignments to include company commander and Brigade Operations Officer (S3). Now a lieutenant colonel, he completed the Command and General Staff College and is now serving as the Public Affairs Officer of the 84th AARTC.

Fitzgerald comes from a family very active in public service. His father, Stephen Fitzgerald, was Sheriff of Dodge County for 14 years and now serves as the U.S. Marshal for the Western District of Wisconsin. His brother, Jeff, is an Assembly Representative from Dodge County.

Committee assignments

2013-2014

At the beginning of the 2013 legislative session, Fitzgerald served on the following committees:

Wisconsin Committee Assignments, 2013
• Senate Organization, Chair
• Employment Relations
• Joint Legislative Council
• Legislative Organization

2011-2012

At the beginning of the 2011 legislative session, Fitzgerald served on the following committees:

Wisconsin Committee Assignments, 2011
• Senate Organization, Chair
• Employment Relations
• Legislative Organization

2009-2010

At the beginning of the 2009 legislative session, Fitzgerald served on the following committees:

Wisconsin Committee Assignments, 2009
• Senate Organization
• Legislative Organization
• Employment Relations
• Joint Legislative Council

Issues

Sen. Fitzgerald's issue positions according to his website:

• Pro-life
• Supports cutting taxes and freezing property taxes
• Supports reduced state spending
• Health care reform "using free market ideas and consumer choice"
• Against homosexual marriages
• Veteran's rights

Sponsored legislation

Recent legislation sponsored or co-sponsored by Sen. Fitzgerald includes:

• A bill prohibiting the slaughter of horses for human consumption
• A bill excluding gains from a Wisconsin business from income tax
• A bill urging Congress not to enact the Employee Free Choice Act regarding unions

Voter ID

In the summer of 2011, Wisconsin voters faced unique slate of recall elections which served to provide voters with a test run of needing to show photo identification when they arrived to vote at the polls. This all depended on a mid-May vote in the Senate and Gov. Scott Walker's signature. The primary elections in spring 2012 would be the first voter ID primaries.

The Government Accountability Board, the state’s elections agency, began preparing to train local clerks and poll workers before the Senate vote.

GAB spokesman Reid Magney said the agency could try a “soft implementation” of voter ID during recall elections for nine Wisconsin state senators, slated for July 12 or Aug. 9, if a primary is required. Recall voters will be asked, but not required, to provide ID and will receive literature explaining the new requirements.

“We’ve begun the planning process for implementation, but at this point I think it’s too early to say that we’ll have it done by a certain day,” Magney said.

The State Assembly last week passed the voter ID proposal, AB 7, by a mostly party-line vote of 60 to 35, with all Republicans and a few Democrats in support.

State Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald said the proposal will protect the integrity of elections.

“I think that there’s enough isolated incidents over the years that anyone who casts a vote has to have the full faith in the idea that their vote counts and it’s not going to be canceled out by some other person in another part of the state involved in some shenanigans,” he said.

Collective bargaining

Dane County District Judge Maryann Sumi ruled in May 2011 that lawmakers violated Wisconsin's open meetings law in passing the collective bargaining legislation in spring 2011, and therefore, the bill is null and void. Gov. Scott Walker had signed the bill into law, but the ruling overrules it.

"It is not the court's duty to determine whether 2011 Wisconsin Act 10 is good public policy or bad public policy; that is the business of the legislature," according to the ruling. "It is this court's responsibility, however, to apply the rule of law to the facts before it."

Sumi ruled that lawmakers failed to give enough notice for the Joint Committee on Conference meeting held March 9, 2011, during which lawmakers settled on the final version of the collective bargaining bill. The bill requires most public union employees to contribute more to their health care and pension plans and limits their collective-bargaining powers to salary negotiations.

Legislative leaders have pledged to pass the legislation again as part of the biennial budget — and they're counting on the state Supreme Court to be the ultimate decider on this case.

“There’s still a much larger separation-of-powers issue: whether one Madison judge can stand in the way of the other two democratically elected branches of government," said Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald in a statement. "The Supreme Court is going to have the ultimate ruling, and they’re still scheduled to hear the issue on June 6."

Elections

2012 recall

See also: Scott Fitzgerald recall, Wisconsin State Senate (2012)

Fitzgerald defeated Lori Compas and Terry Virgil (L) in a recall election on June 5, 2012. He was unopposed in the May 8 primary.

Recall of Wisconsin State Senator Scott Fitzgerald, 2012
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Republican	Scott Fitzgerald Incumbent	58.3%	47,146
	Democratic	Lori Compas	40.7%	32,909
	Libertarian	Terry Virgil	0.9%	763
	-	Scattering	0%	33
Total Votes				80,851
Source: Wisconsin Government Accountability Board

An effort to recall Fitzgerald was launched on November 15, 2011. Supporters submitted 20,600 signatures on January 17, 2012. The Wisconsin Government Accountability Board voted unanimously on March 12 to order the recall, determining that at least 18,282 of the signatures were valid.

2010

See also: Wisconsin State Senate elections, 2010

Fitzgerald was re-elected to the Wisconsin State Senate District 13. He was unopposed in the September 14, 2010 primary. He defeated Democrat Dwayne Block in the general election on November 2, 2010.

Wisconsin State Senate, District 13 (2010) General Election
Candidates		Votes	Percent
Scott Fitzgerald (R)		44.529	67.61%
Vittorio Spadaro (I)		2,071	3.14%

Wisconsin Senate, District 13 Republican Primary (2010)
Candidates		Votes	Percent
Scott Fitzgerald (R)		21,068	99.6%

Two days after the general election, Fitzgerald was elected Majority Leader of the Wisconsin State Senate by his Republican peers on November 4, 2010.

2006

On November 7, 2006, Scott Fitzgerald won re-election to the Wisconsin State Senate, District 13. He ran unopposed.

Scott Fitzgerald raised $142,016 for his campaign.

Wisconsin State Senate, District 13 (2006)
Candidates		Votes
Scott Fitzgerald		47,351

Campaign donors

2012

Campaign donor information is not yet available for this year.

2010

In 2010, Fitzgerald received $203,268 in campaign donations. The top contributors are listed below.

Wisconsin State Senate 2010 election - Campaign Contributions
Top contributors to Scott Fitzgerald's campaign in 2010
Butler, John	$1,000
Vowell, Tim	$1,000
Kleiman, Jeffrey	$1,000
Schmidt, Julie	$1,000
Luxenberg, Michael	$1,000
Total Raised in 2010	$203,268

2008

Some of the top contributors to Sen. Fitzgerald's 2008 campagin, according to the National Institute of Money in State Politics:

Scott Fitzgerald (self-finance), John Menard, Elaine Kraut, Allan Jones, Joseph Wolfberg

Financial, insurance and real estate interests were his largest donor group and most of his contributions came from individuals.

In 2008, Fitzgerald collected $161,303 in donations.

Listed below are the top four contributors to his campaign.

Donor	Amount
Scott Fitzgerald	$2,226
Barbara Michels	$1,000
Joseph Wolfberg	$1,000
John Deere & Co.	$1,000

Personal

Fitzgerald and his wife, Lisa, have three children.

External links

Suggest a link

• Website from the Wisconsin Legislature
• Project Vote Smart legislative profile
• Project Vote Smart biographical profile
• Campaign contributions: 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008
• Sen. Fitzgerald's campaign website
• Fitzgerald on Facebook

References

Political offices
Preceded by '	Wisconsin State Senate District 13 1994–present	Succeeded by NA