a 1995 forum in Stevens Point. Wisconsin Historical Society

Additionally, after District 3 state Sen. John Norquist, D-Milwaukee, was elected mayor of Milwaukee in April 1988, formally resigning from the Legislature effective April 20, Gov. Tommy Thompson similarly called for his seat to be filled in a special election concurrent with the regularly scheduled November election. In that case, there was a 202-day gap between resignation and election.

A precedent for speedy special elections

The WisContext analysis of special elections called between 1971 and February 2018 uses information from a few sources to piece together when vacancies occurred and when governors called special elections to fill them: governors' executive orders, Wisconsin Blue Books records of election dates and results, and the Legislature's journals. Pieced together, information from these sources usually revealswhen a seat became vacant, when and if the governor called a special election to fill it, and when the election was held.

Scott Gordon Wisconsin Blue Books were essential to WisContext's investigation of special elections in the state.

As much as possible, this analysis uses the date on which a legislator's resignation became effective as the "triggering date" of the vacancy. In rare cases where this date was not available, this analysis uses the most specific available date for an event that would have triggered the vacancy, such as the date a legislator was elected to another office.

One important distinction to note is that a legislative vacancy remains open until the new officeholder is sworn in; however, this analysis uses election dates rather than swearing-in dates, because it's focused