Joseph Wimmer

Joseph E. Wimmer (born July 21, 1934) is a retired American judge and politician. He served 9 years as a Wisconsin circuit court judge in Waukesha County after representing the county for 8 years in the Wisconsin State Assembly as a Republican.

Early life and education

Born in Watertown, Wisconsin, Wimmer graduated from Watertown High School and enlisted in the United States Army. He served two years before returning to private life. He went on to attend the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he received his bachelor's degree in accounting in 1959, and continued his education at the University of Wisconsin Law School, earning his LL.B. in 1961.

Career

Wimmer went to work as an attorney, and, in 1964, was hired as an assistant district attorney in Waukesha County. He served three years, and returned to private practice, though returned to public service in 1968 when he was hired as assistant city attorney of Muskego under John P. Buckley. He continued as assistant city attorney until 1973. Over the next several years, he was a partner in the firm Wimmer, Evans & Vollmer.

Wimmer made his first attempt at elected office in 1980, running on the Republican ticket to challenge incumbent state senator Lynn Adelman. Despite a strong Republican year at the top of the state ticket, with presidential candidate Ronald Reagan winning the state by more than 100,000 votes, state Republicans ran well behind Reagan, and Wimmer fell far short of Adelman, who took 57% of the vote in the 28th State Senate district.

Wimmer ran again in 1982, running instead for the Wisconsin State Assembly in the newly redrawn 64th Assembly district. The 1981–1982 redistricting process had failed to produce a map that could pass the Legislature and win the signature of the Governor. As a result, a panel of federal judges had imposed their own redistricting on the state, scrambling the State Assembly districts, with nearly all incumbents being drawn out of their previous districts. Southeast Waukesha, where Wimmer lived, had previously been part of the 83rd Assembly district, which also included the neighboring municipalities of New Berlin, Genesee, and Vernon. That district had been represented in the 1981–1982 session by John C. Shabaz of New Berlin. The 1982 redistricting split New Berlin into a separate district, and Wimmer was able to run in the new 64th district without an incumbent on the ballot. In the general election, Wimmer defeated Democrat Mary Carlson. The 1983–1984 session passed a redistricting law to replace the court-imposed map, and Wimmer went on to win election four more times in the redrawn 32nd Assembly district.

In 1991, Governor Tommy Thompson appointed Wimmer as Wisconsin circuit court judge in Waukesha County's Branch 1 seat, vacated by the elevation of Judge Harry G. Snyder to the Wisconsin Court of Appeals. In April 1992, Judge Wimmer won election to a full six-year term, and he was reelected in 1998. In late 1999, he announced he would retire in the early part of 2000. He was succeeded by Judge Michael O. Bohren.

References

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Politicians from Watertown, Wisconsin
People from Muskego, Wisconsin
Republican Party members of the Wisconsin State Assembly
Wisconsin circuit court judges
Military personnel from Wisconsin
United States Army soldiers
University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni
University of Wisconsin Law School alumni
1934 births
Living people
20th-century members of the Wisconsin Legislature