| Wisconsin State Senator Lena Taylor is a force to be reckoned with. At the hearing of the Special Committee on Affirmative Action last December when Ward Connerly, the anti-Affirmative Action advocate, was the featured speaker, Taylor's skills as an advocate, lawyer, and public speaker were much in evidence. While Senator Glenn Grothman was the chair, by the end of the hearing, it was Taylor who was in charge. Taylor went head to head with Connerly, grilling him on every point of his philosophy. Taylor's constituents from Milwaukee were not a part of the post-Affirmative Action world that Connerly championed and Taylor was not about to give him any quarter. After the hearing, Connerly was overheard complaining that Taylor had been "grandstanding to the audience." To the students in the audience, Taylor was a heroine. Taylor has asked to be a regular member of the Affirmative Action committee -- she was a substitute for a member last December. "Senator Grothman has not decided whether or not he is going to allow me on the committee," Taylor said in an interview with The Capital City Hues. Grothman is probably trying to figure out a way to politicly keep her off the committee. In the two short years that she has been in the state senate, representing the Fourth Senate District out of Milwaukee, Taylor has quickly risen through the ranks. During the upcoming session, she will be on the powerful Joint Finance Committee and will chair the Senate Judiciary Committee. In addition, Taylor sits on the WHEDA board, all appointments that place her in a strategic spot to do something good for the people of her district. It was nip and tuck for a week in terms of whether or not the interview with Taylor would even take place. I was basically on call to see if the interview could be squeezed between meetings and appointments. "It's really a busy time," Taylor emphasized. "It's getting the agenda in synch with the caucus, getting the chairperson things in line so that you are prepared to be a chair and know what your agenda items are that you are trying to do for that committee. We have already seen what the departments have requested from the governor. So we're reading those things over. Then we'll see what the governor decides to do. I have 250 pages of reading to know what the departments requested." Taylor is not an acerbic kind of advocate. She is very delightful, charming and witty as we sit in her fourth floor office in the capitol, just down the hall from the room where the Joint Finance Committee meets. "I tend to be really shy and I'm going to work on it," Taylor said with a laugh. While Taylor's manner and personality can be downright disarming, I have no doubt that Taylor is very serious, can "get down" when she needs to and is determined to get what she needs for her district. "I feel I came to be a voice," Taylor said. "I'm doing what the people sent me to do. I'm being heard. And I'm standing my ground on issues. It's not that I'm uncompromising. As a lawyer, one of the things that I'm accustomed to is someone not agreeing with my view. "I'm accustomed to hearing both sides of the argument. I just normally feel strongly about my perspective and think you should come my way." Taylor broke out in a sly smile as she said this. Taylor loves what she does and one readily gets the impression that she relishes the battle and the give and take of the political process. "I feel it is my responsibility to take on the issues," Taylor emphasized. "I didn't come here to have it easy. To whom much is given, much is required. I feel like I've been given major opportunity and access and a voice. I feel that I have risen up as a leader by the people because of who I was and how I did things. So I didn't think they expected me to come here and be a shrinking violet. I appreciate being able to be a voice." Taylor has risen up the ranks within Milwaukee's African American community. A 1984 graduate of Rufus King High School, Taylor admits that she wasn't fully devoted to her studies. "I'm a kid who was smart, but had many other things and issues going on where I wasn't focused as a result of that," Taylor confided. "I barely made it out of high school, but I had a mother, thank God, who told me that I was going to college or I was going to get out and get a job and pay rent. Now she insists she didn't tell me I had to get out. But I heard her very well back when my ears worked better than they do now. I had people in my life who believed in me when I didn't really believe in myself," Taylor said about why she made it. "They pushed me to do different, who had expectations for me higher than I might have had for myself. That's why I feel strongly that we have to have expectations for our children and education systems. Part of what I think is missing is why I share with people all the time the role that God plays in my life. I can't speak for anybody else. I can only speak for me. I wouldn't be where I am if it weren't for His grace and mercy." When Taylor was 20 years old, it clicked inside her that she needed an education to be successful. She received her B.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1990 and her law degree from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale in 1993. She came back to Milwaukee to work as a public defender for approximately eight years before diving head first into private practice. "It was another -- step of faith -- to believe that I would still be able to pay my bills and meet my needs," Taylor said. "God hasn't forsaken me yet." Taylor forsook her private practice four years ago to plunge into Milwaukee and state politics. Although she was a relative unknown and was up against an established union organizer, Taylor was elected to the state assembly. Then two years later Gwen Moore's senate seat became open when Moore ran for Congress. "I decided I was going to run after hearing that Senator Moore believed in me and thought I could," Taylor said. "After I got started in it, it came out that Marvin Pratt was going to run. If he was going to run, I wasn't going to run. I decided I wasn't going to run and when he said he wasn't going to run, I got back in the race and the rest is history." Taylor is a part of history as she assumes her role in the Senate. "I am the 20th woman, the fifth African American and the second African American woman in the history of this state to be a state senator," Taylor said. "We've only had women in the senate for 32 years. And we've had African Americans gracing the senate for 33 years." Right now, Taylor is clearly excited about being in the majority this time around. "I made a lot of recommendations when I was in the minority and didn't anyone listen to a dog gone thing I said, you know," Taylor said with laughter. "I don't understand that." Clearly, this time, her ideas will be heard. Taylor will also play a significant role in pushing the Democratic agenda forward. "I'm excited," Taylor exclaimed about being in a position of leadership. "I'm hoping that we will have some middle ground on many issues this year because I want to get something done for the people of Wisconsin. I just don't want us to have good conversations and we still haven't done anything to figure out what we can do to address treatment instead of prisons, that we are addressing how we can mentor people. What are some of the creative ways that we can provide services, options, or alternatives for people? So, I'm excited. This is a good time to be able to try to do some great things to continue to make Wisconsin great." As the chair of the Judiciary Committee, Taylor will be in the thick of things. "Judiciary dealt with all of the major hot button issues last year, concealed-carry, the constitutional amendment on same sex marriage, voter ID, all of those things, came through Judiciary," Taylor recalled. "No question, that this is the committee that has a major impact. We rank number one in the nation on the incarceration among African Americans. Clearly, treatment instead of prison, re-entry programs, and community policing opportunities are all things that have a direct correlation withthe Judiciary Committee." And Taylor will sit, once again, on the most powerful committee of the state legislature, the Joint Finance Committee. Joint Finance considers and reviews all of the major appropriations bills that make up the state's biennial budget. "It's exciting to have the opportunity to be at the table," Taylor said. "This is my second budget on Finance. And it's different because I was on the Committee and I was the junior minority member. Now I'm not even the junior member, majority member. It's different being on the Committee in the majority. And while before it was strictly a Republican controlled committee, now it's a split committee. You have eight Republicans and eight Democrats. You have the Senate being controlled by Democrats, but you have the Assembly being controlled by Republicans. I think it creates an environment of compromise. Right now, it's 18-15 in favor of the Democrats in the Senate. You have 16 members on Finance. Of the 16, eight are on the Senate side and eight are on the Assembly side. Six are Democrats on the Senate side and two are Democratic on the Assembly side." With all of her new duties and responsibilities, Taylor will be pretty busy these next six months. "I don't anticipate that we'll be done completely with the budget in June," Taylor said. "I'm hoping it will come out of Finance sometime between June and July. I'm expecting the Governor to give it to us sometime in February. Then the legislature has to vote on it. So after I get done dealing with it on Finance, I then get to deal with the issues in the Senate." "I'd like to be a good state senator right now and I'm pretty anxious about all of this responsibility, with all of thisopportunity that is presently upon me," Taylor continued. "I'm trying to adjust to that. I'm trying to make sure that the opportunities that exist for me on Finance, that I don't miss those. I'm just really trying to grab what's coming in these next six months. I've never been the chair of Judiciary. I've never been a chair of a committee. I've not been in the majority of the legislature. Those are all new things. We had our first Democratic woman majority leader with Judy Larson. We never had a woman as the president. There is so much to be done right here." Taylor is ready to do battle. "I think there are some individuals who are committed to things that I am committed to," Taylor exclaimed. "So now convincing them or swaying them on issues that are important to me and being able to create the vote that we need on issues that are important to me. I believe there are individuals who will listen. So I'm excited." Taylor's excitement will probably be contagious. Watch out Senator Grothman. Next issue: Taylor's take on the upcoming legislative session. |
| Wisconsin State Senator Lena Taylor heads the Judiciary Committee A new voice for a New Day Part 1 of 2 by Jonathan Gramling |
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| Homepage Jan. 10, 2007 Issue Archives |