Longtime Democratic Wisconsin Sen. Erpenbach retires

Democratic state Sen. Jon Erpenbach, who has been in the state Senate since 1999 and is a member of the Legislature’s powerful budget-writing committee, will not seek a seventh term next year.

Erpenbach represents a heavily Democratic district that includes most of western Dane County, northern Green County, eastern Iowa County, eastern Sauk County, and parts of western Columbia County.

He was one of 14 Senate Democrats who left the state in 2011 in a failed attempt to block passage of then-Gov. Scott Walker’s collective bargaining law that became known as Act 10. He announced his intention not to seek re-election on Wednesday.