85th Wisconsin Legislature

The Eighty-Fifth Wisconsin Legislature convened from January 5, 1981, to January 3, 1983, in regular session, and also convened in three special sessions.

This session represents the third time the Legislature failed to pass a redistricting act on schedule. Ultimately, a panel of federal judges would implement a punitive redistricting plan in 1982, and after Democrats gained unified control of government in 1983, they passed a superseding plan.

Senators representing even-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 even-numbered senators were elected in the general election of November 4, 1980. Senators representing odd-numbered districts were serving the third and fourth year of a four-year term, having been elected in the general election of November 7, 1978.

The governor of Wisconsin during this entire term was Republican Lee S. Dreyfus, of Portage County, serving the second two years of a four-year term, having won election in the 1978 Wisconsin gubernatorial election.