WisPolitics.com Luncheon

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Loren Fellows

A close-up of Tim Cullen.

Tim Cullen

media release: Tim Cullen & Tom Loftus, who have spent a lifetime in politics, talk about current events and their new books from Little Creek Press.

Tim Cullen is the former Democratic Senate majority leader from Janesville. Tom Loftus is the former Dem Assembly speaker from Sun Prairie. In their legislative heyday, they teamed up to create bills and mischief.

Tim went on to GOP Gov. Tommy Thompson's cabinet and a career in health care. Tom tried to beat Thompson but ended up as ambassador to Norway and a colleague of Tommy's in the fight for better global health.

Tim's book is about redistricting, a key part of the 2024 election story that he helped create. Tom's book is a memoir about his most interesting life. And they have a lot to say about current events.

See more on Cullen's book, "Wisconsin Gerrymandering: The Fight for Permanent Fair Maps and Why It Matters": https://littlecreekpress.com/product/wisconsin-gerrymandering/

See more on Loftus' book, "Mission to Oslo: dancing with the Queen, dealmaking with the Russians, shaping history" https://littlecreekpress.com/product/mission-to-oslo-dancing-with-the-queen-dealmaking-with-the-russians-shaping-history/

They will answer questions and sign their books at this event, which includes food and soft drinks. Books available for purchase at the event or go here: https://littlecreekpress.com/

More on Cullen's book:

 Gerrymandering. It’s a big word for a big mess when it comes to how legislative district maps are drawn in Wisconsin. The practice is “an outrageous abuse of power” that happens whenever one political party controls the legislature and governorship, writes Former Wisconsin Senate Majority Leader Tim Cullen, author of “Wisconsin Gerrymandering: The Fight for Permanent Fair Maps and Why It Matters” (ISBN: 978-1-955656-76-4, Retail: $17.95), published this summer by Little Creek Press, Mineral Point, Wis.

“Republicans did it in Wisconsin; Democrats did it in Illinois”, he says because gerrymandering not only keeps one political party in power, but it also greatly influences how policy issues are decided. Cullen adds that he wrote this book to explain why gerrymandering happened in Wisconsin and to discuss how to keep gerrymandering out of Wisconsin. As a former Senate Majority Leader, the practice has been source of frequent voter questions, he notes. “They want to know, ‘How and why does this gerrymandering thing happen’? So, I wrote the book to answer that question.”

His book answers how it happens, how it wound its way into partisan politics, and how, if ever, it could be ended in Wisconsin. The book includes recent court decisions, explains the effects of gerrymandering on policy and elections, and ultimately, offers the history lessons needed to unravel gerrymandering’s twisted past in a way that plots a straighter map to the future.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Former Wisconsin Senate Majority Leader (1982-1987), Janesville, Wisconsin native Tim Cullen graduated from UW–Whitewater. He was elected to the state senate as a Democrat at the age of thirty. He later became Secretary of the Department of Health and Social Services under Governor Tommy Thompson and worked post-legislature at Blue Cross for 20 years while serving on the Janesville School Board. In 2010, he was reelected to his old Senate seat and served until 2015. Today, Cullen still lives in Janesville and spends his time working with the three foundations he started.

EARLY PRAISE

Wisconsin Gerrymandering is more than an insightful and necessary lesson in history. … It is a call to arms for every Republican, Democrat, independent to be united to take on the fight against Gerrymandering. – Former Governor of Wisconsin Martin Schreiber

ABOUT THE BOOK: Tim Cullen will equally split all profits from this book between Janesville’s Multicultural Teachers Scholarship Fund (which he started in 2008) and Beloit’s similar scholarship program, Grow Your Own. These programs’ sole purpose is to raise money for college scholarships for students and adults of color with the goal to (1) support students who wish to become teachers and who are willing to return to Janesville or Beloit to teach and (2) to make the teacher corps look more like the students they teach. Find “Wisconsin Gerrymandering” through your favorite bookstore. (Wholesalers and Retailers, contact: Ingram Content Group or www.littlecreekpress.com.)