86th Wisconsin Legislature

The Eighty-Sixth Wisconsin Legislature convened from January 3, 1983, to January 7, 1985, in regular session, and also convened in six special sessions.

This was the only legislative session under the legislative redistricting plan imposed by a panel of federal judges in 1982 in the case Wisconsin State AFL-CIO v. Elections Board. The district plan was intended to be punitive, scrambling the district numbers and putting incumbents in head-to-head contests. During this session, the legislature and governor agreed on a new redistricting plan to supersede the court plan, the only time this has been done in Wisconsin history.

Senators representing odd-numbered districts were newly elected for this session and were serving the first two years of a four-year term. Assembly members were elected to a two-year term. Assembly members and odd-numbered senators were elected in the general election of November 2, 1982. Senators representing even-numbered districts were serving the third and fourth year of a four-year term, having been elected in the general election of November 4, 1980.

The governor of Wisconsin during this entire term was Democrat Tony Earl, of Marathon County, serving the first two years of a four-year term, having won election in the 1982 Wisconsin gubernatorial election.