indicate he resigned in 1987 — Merkt is clearly shown voting on Assembly bills well into 1988, but clearly did not run for reelection that year.

The next-longest vacancy for which the WisContext search turned up evidence came up in Assembly District 75, when Rep. Kenneth Schricker, R-Spooner, died on March 1, 1978. (According to a Wisconsin State Journal story published at the time, Schricker collapsed at St. Mary's Hospital in Madison, where he'd been seeking treatment for heart problems.) State records indicate the seat was filled in the general election on November 7, 1978, which came 251 days later and would have included a race for that district with or without a vacancy. (Technically the actual vacancy was longer, as his successor Patricia Spafford Smith, D-Shell Lake, wouldn'thave been sworn in until January 1979.)

The WisContext special elections analysis does show a couple other outliers in the 1980s.

When Gerald Kleczka, D-Milwaukee, was sworn into the U.S. House of Representatives on April 10, 1984 — after being elected to Congress in a special election, after the death of former Rep. Clement Zablocki, D-Milwaukee — he vacated his seat in state Senate District 7. Lieutenant Gov. James Flynn, in the capacity of Acting Gov. during Tony Earl's administration, called a special election for the seat to take place on the day of the general election in November. This period represented a 210-day gap between the seat being vacated and the election filling it.

U.S. Representatives Gerald Kleczka (left), David Obey (center) and Tom Barrett (right) discussed Medicare policy at