Wisconsin's 17th Senate district is one of 33 districts in the Wisconsin Senate. Located in southwest Wisconsin, the district comprises all of Crawford, Grant, Green, Lafayette, and Iowa counties, as well as parts of southwest Dane County, western Rock County, and southern Vernon County. It includes the cities of Boscobel, Brodhead, Cuba City, Darlington, Dodgeville, Lancaster, Mineral Point, Monroe, Oregon, Platteville, Prairie du Chien, and Shullsburg.
Current elected officials Howard Marklein is the senator representing the 17th district. He was first elected in the 2014 general election, and is now in his second four-year term. Before serving as senator, he was a member of the Wisconsin State Assembly from 2011 to 2015, representing the 51st Assembly district. After the 2024 redistricting, Marklein no longer resides in the new district.
Each Wisconsin State Senate district is composed of three Wisconsin State Assembly districts. The 17th Senate district comprises the 49th, 50th, and 51st Assembly districts. The current representatives of those districts are: Assembly District 49: Travis Tranel (R–Cuba City) Assembly District 50: Jenna Jacobson (D–Oregon) Assembly District 51: Todd Novak (R–Dodgeville)
The 17th Senate district crosses two congressional districts. The portion of the district in Iowa, Lafayette, Green, and Dane counties fall within Wisconsin's 2nd congressional district, which is represented by Mark Pocan. The remainder of the district, in Grant and Crawford County, falls within Wisconsin's 3rd congressional district, represented by Derrick Van Orden.
History The 17th Senate district was one of the original 19 Senate districts when Wisconsin was established as a U.S. state. The 17th district was defined in Article XIV, Section 12 of the Wisconsin Constitution as "The towns of Racine, Caledonia, Mount Pleasant, Raymond, Norway, Rochester, Yorkville, and Burlington, in the county of Racine". At that time, this list of towns constituted the northern half of Racine County, but after the establishment of Kenosha County in 1850, this collection of towns would constitute the entire territory of Racine County. During these years, the Free Soil Party was established as a splinter faction of the Democratic Party, and Racine County was a center of Free Soil power in the state of Wisconsin.
In 1852, the Wisconsin Legislature passed a reapportionment which expanded the Senate to 25 seats. The act redefined the 17th Senate district as "The towns of Janesville, Rock, Fulton, Porter, Centre, Plymouth, Newark, Avon, Spring Valley, Magnolia, and Union, in the county of Rock". This constituted the western half of Rock County. The 1856 redistricting, which expanded the Senate to 30 seats, reiterated the existing boundaries for the 17th district, but noted the addition of the city of Janesville, which was incorporated in 1853. The 1861 redistricting act, which expanded the Senate to its current number of 33 senators, expanded the 17th district to cover all of Rock County.
The district boundaries remained unchanged until 1892, when a controversial redistricting act was passed just days before the 1892 election. The new boundaries of the 17th district were defined as "The county of Green and the towns of Union, Porter, Magnolia, Center, Spring Valley, Plymouth, Avon, Newark, Beloit and the Third and Fourth wards of the city of Beloit, in the county of Rock, and the towns of Cottage Grove, Deerfield, Pleasant Springs, Dunkirk, Dunn, Rutland, Christiana, Albion and the city of Stoughton, in the county of Dane". Simplified, this constituted all of Green County, western Rock County, and southeast Dane County.
The 1892 act was quickly superseded by an 1896 act, which redefined the 17th Senate district as "Green and Lafayette counties, and the towns of Avon, Beloit, Clinton, Newark, Plymouth, Spring Valley, Turtle, and the village of Clinton, and the city of Beloit, in the county of Rock." The list of towns in Rock county constituted roughly the southern half of the county. This act was, in turn, superseded by the 1901 redistricting act which removed Rock County from the district entirely, and added Iowa County to Green and Lafayette.
In 1951, after several decades without redistricting, the Wisconsin Legislature passed the so-called Rosenberry plan, named for retired Wisconsin Supreme Court justice Marvin B. Rosenberry, who chaired the redistricting commission which drafted the plan. The new plan went into effect in the 1954 elections, after some additional wrangling and judicial arguments. Under that plan, the 17th Senate district added Grant County to Green, Lafayette, and Iowa.
In the 1960s, the Legislature missed a court-imposed deadline to pass a redistricting plan after the 1960 U.S. census. The Wisconsin Supreme Court, therefore, enforced its own plan for legislative districts in a filing in State ex rel. Reynolds v. Zimmerman. In the court-ordered plan, the 17th Senate district added Richland County to Grant, Green, Iowa, and Lafayette.
The district only changed slightly in the 1972 redistricting, the first to occur after the Supreme Court ruling requiring state legislative districts to offer equal representation. The 17th district lost several towns of northwest Grant County, and gained parts of southwest Rock County and northwest Dane County.
In the 1981–1982 session, the Legislature again failed to pass a redistricting plan, and, as a result of litigation, a panel of three federal judges ordered a new districting plan in Wisconsin State AFL-CIO v. Elections Board. Under the court-ordered plan, the 17th Senate district lost most of Richland County and northern Green County, and the parts of Dane County that had been added in 1972, it gained more of Rock County and part of southern Sauk County. This court-ordered plan was only in-effect for the 1982 election; in 1983 the Legislature acted to override the court-ordered plan with their own plan for the remainder of the 1980s elections. The 17th district regained all of Richland County and added most of Sauk County and part of southern Juneau County; it lost all of Green and Rock counties.
The 1992 redistricting was again ordered by a panel of judges, and this time was not superseded by a Legislative plan. The 1992 plan saw the 17th district add all of Juneau and the remaining parts of Grant County while losing much of Richland County. The subsequent 2002 and 2011 maps vary in boundaries, but keep roughly this configuration, stretching from Grant to Juneau, with parts of Richland, Sauk, Iowa, and Lafayette counties.
Past senators The boundaries of districts have changed over history. Previous politicians of a specific numbered district have represented different geographic areas, due to redistricting.
At statehood, the district was one of two for Racine County. It was represented by:
Senator Party Notes Session Years District definition District created 1848 Northern Racine County Philo White Dem. 1st Victor Willard 2nd 1849 3rd 1850 Stephen O. Bennett 4th 1851 Racine County 5th 1852 Ezra Miller Dem. 6th 1853 7th 1854 James Sutherland Rep. 8th 1855 9th 1856 10th 1857 11th 1858 Zebulon P. Burdick Rep. 12th 1859 13th 1860 Ezra Foot Rep. 14th 1861 15th 1862 Rock County William A. Lawrence Rep. 16th 1863 17th 1864 18th 1865 19th 1866 Samuel J. Todd 20th 1867 21st 1868 Charles G. Williams Rep. 22nd 1869 23rd 1870 24th 1871 25th 1872 Horatio Davis Rep. 26th 1873 27th 1874 28th 1875 29th 1876 Hamilton Richardson Rep. 30th 1877 31st 1878 32nd 1879 33rd 1880 34th 1881 35th 1882 Simon Lord Rep. 36th 1883–1884 37th 1885–1886 Allen P. Lovejoy Rep. 38th 1887–1888 39th 1889–1890 Richard Burdge Rep. 40th 1891–1892 41st 1893–1894 Green County and Henry Putnam Rep. 42nd 1895–1896 43rd 1897–1898 Green and Lafayette counties and Harry C. Martin Rep. 44th 1899–1900 45th 1901–1902 46th 1903–1904 Green, Iowa, and Lafayette counties 1910 population: 64,213 47th 1905–1906 48th 1907–1908 49th 1909–1910 50th 1911–1912 51st 1913–1914 Platt Whitman Rep. 52nd 1915–1916 53rd 1917–1918 Oscar R. Olson Rep. 54th 1919–1920 55th 1921–1922 Olaf H. Johnson Rep. 56th 1923–1924 57th 1925–1926 Charles W. Hutchison Rep. 58th 1927–1928 59th 1929–1930 William Olson Rep. Died Nov. 1931 60th 1931–1932 Vacant George Engebretson Rep. Won 1932 special election 61st 1933–1934 62nd 1935–1936 63rd 1937–1938 Carl Lovelace Rep. Died Feb. 1941 64th 1939–1940 65th 1941–1942 Vacant Melvin Olson Rep. 66th 1943–1944 67th 1945–1946 68th 1947–1948 69th 1949–1950 70th 1951–1952 71st 1953–1954 Robert S. Travis Rep. 72nd 1955–1956 Grant, Green, Iowa, and Lafayette counties 73rd 1957–1958 74th 1959–1960 75th 1961–1962 Gordon Roseleip Rep. 76th 1963–1964 77th 1965–1966 Grant, Green, Iowa, Lafayette, and Richland counties 78th 1967–1968 79th 1969–1970 80th 1971–1972 81st 1973–1974 Iowa, Lafayette, Richland counties and Most of Grant CountyMost of Green County Kathryn Morrison Dem. 82nd 1975–1976 83rd 1977–1978 Richard Kreul Rep. Resigned July 1991 84th 1979–1980 85th 1981–1982 86th 1983–1984 Iowa, Lafayette counties and Most of Grant CountyMost of Green County Western Rock CountySouthern Sauk CountyPart of Richland County 87th 1985–1986 Iowa, Lafayette, Richland counties andMost of Grant CountyMost of Sauk CountySouthern Juneau CountyPart of Vernon County 88th 1987–1988 89th 1989–1990 90th 1991–1992 Vacant Dale Schultz Rep. Won 1991 special election 91st 1993–1994 Grant, Iowa, Juneau, Lafayette counties andMost of Sauk CountyNortheast Richland County 92nd 1995–1996 93rd 1997–1998 94th 1999–2000 95th 2001–2002 96th 2003–2004 Grant, Iowa, Juneau, counties andMost of Lafayette CountyMost of Sauk CountyMost of Richland CountyPart of Monroe County 97th 2005–2006 98th 2007–2008 99th 2009–2010 100th 2011–2012 101st 2013–2014 Grant, Juneau, Lafayette, Richland counties andMost of Sauk CountyWestern of Iowa CountySouthwest Green CountyPart of Monroe County Rep. 102nd 2015–2016 103rd 2017–2018 104th 2019–2020 105th 2021–2022 106th 2023–2024 Grant, Juneau, Lafayette, Richland counties andmost of Sauk Countywestern of Iowa Countysouthwest Green Countypart of Vernon County 107th 2025–2026 Crawford, Grant, Iowa, Lafayette counties andsouthwestern Dane Countypart of Vernon Countypart of Rock County
References
External links Senate District 17 at Wisconsin Legislature Senator Howard L. Marklein (2023) Senator Howard L. Marklein (2021) Senator Howard L. Marklein (2019) Senator Howard L. Marklein (2017)