Scott Suder To Leave Assembly For Job With Walker Administration

Assembly Majority Leader Scott Suder, R-Abbotsford, is leaving the legislature for a job in Gov. Scott Walker’s administration.

Suder was the number two lawmaker in the Wisconsin Assembly during one of the most tumultuous sessions in state history. But before that, he had about a dozen years of experience as a rank-and-file lawmaker. Suder was a bit of a verbal bomb thrower, attacking Democrats on issues like food stamps in 2007: “Deadbeat parents will be laughing all the way to the grocery store on this one.”

Suder’s own agenda included a lot of tough-on-crime bills. In 2005, he pushed for a law that required a 25-year minimum sentence for sexual predators. At the time, he said “If you’re sexual predator, after we pass this legislation, Wisconsin is going to be your worst nightmare and that’s the way it should be.”

Despite a sometimes combative style, Suder could work with Democrats. In 2007, he negotiated a corrections budget compromise with Mark Pocan, who is now a U.S. representative for Wisconsin.

“Really there hasn’t been, from my perspective, this much agreement from two people with different philosophies since Reagan met Gorbachev in Reykjavik,” he said.

Suder leaves the legislature for a job in the Public Service Commission (PSC), where he’ll see familiar faces: Two of the three PSC commissioners there previously served or worked in the Assembly Republican caucus. Already, Rep. Dean Knudson, R-Hudson, and Speaker Pro Tem Bill Kramer, R-Waukesha, were campaigning to replace Suder as Majority Leader.