Janet Bewley was elected to the Wisconsin state Assembly in November 2010, representing a district along the shores of Lake Superior in the northernmost reaches of the state. A Democrat, she was a newcomer to politics. She knew only a little about the legislative process and came to Madison with both big hopes and some trepidation.
Bewley was eager to learn as quickly as she could about how to become an effective legislator. Instead, in the early weeks of 2011, she found herself caught up in the disorienting turbulence of mass protests and a bitter standoff inside the legislature. “I got thrown into the deep end of the pool,” she said, “and then the pool caught fire.”
Bewley was elected in the year of the national tea party revolt, the anti-government movement with racial overtones that formed in reaction to then-President Barack Obama and his agenda for universal health care. The movement generated a powerful backlash that cost Democrats in Washington 63 seats and their House majority.
