Bewley faces stronger Republican majority in Wisconsin in January

Democrat Janet Bewley, the newly elected state senator who will serve Northwestern Wisconsin’s 25th District, will begin her Senate career facing a strengthened Republican majority in the state Senate and Assembly.
Knowing that, she said she still looks forward to being sworn in and getting to work in Madison in January.
Bewley, who has served two terms in a Republican-controlled Assembly as the 74th District representative, knows that right out of the gate she’s going to have to get to know her new colleagues as the Legislature tackles the next biennial budget.
“My top priority is to get to Madison and get a really, really good understanding of the lay of the land - and how I can position myself in the upcoming budget battle … to make sure that I can be the strongest possible advocate for our communities, our schools and the people of northern Wisconsin,” Bewley said last week.
Bewley defeated Republican challenger Dane Deutsch in Tuesday’s election with 51 percent of the vote to Deutsch’s 49 percent. Voters in the 25th District returned a Democrat to the seat held by Poplar Democrat Bob Jauch for nearly three decades. But statewide, voters took a more conservative approach and expanded the Republican majority in the Senate and Assembly. Voters also returned Republican Gov. Scott Walker to office.
“The budget is going to be one of the first things we’re going to be taking up and it’s going to be a fight,” Bewley said. “We know there’s talk already of expansion of (school) vouchers, many things that are going to have a fiscal impact on people of the north. …
 “We have a lot of hard work ahead of us with the makeup of the Assembly and the Senate and with Gov. Scott Walker being re-elected,” Bewley said. “The fight to protect the good people of the north is going to be more important than ever.”