Wisconsin's 49th Assembly district

Wisconsin's 49th Assembly district is one of 99 districts in the Wisconsin State Assembly.^[1] Located in southwest Wisconsin, the district comprises all of Crawford County and most of Grant County. It includes the cities of Boscobel, Fennimore, Lancaster, Platteville, and Prairie du Chien, and the villages of Bagley, Bell Center, Bloomington, Cassville, De Soto, Dickeyville, Eastman, Ferryville, Gays Mills, Lynxville, Mount Hope, Mount Sterling, Patch Grove, Potosi, Soldiers Grove, Steuben, Tennyson, Wauzeka, and Woodman. The district also contains the University of Wisconsin–Platteville campus, Wyalusing State Park, and Nelson Dewey Memorial State Park, and historic landmarks such as the Potosi Brewery and the Grant County Courthouse.^[2] The district has been represented by Travis Tranel, a Republican, since January 2011.^[3]

Wisconsin's 49th State Assembly district
From 2024 to 2031 From 2022 to 2023 From 2012 to 2021 2024 map defined in 2023 Wisc. Act 94 2022 map defined in Johnson v. Wisconsin Elections Commission 2011 map was defined in 2011 Wisc. Act 43
Assemblymember	Travis Tranel R–Cuba City since January 3, 2011 (13 years)
Demographics	93.49% White 1.87% Black 2.0% Hispanic 0.97% Asian 1.09% Native American 0.06% Hawaiian/Pacific Islander
Population (2020)  • Voting age	59,584 47,347
Website	Official website
Notes	Southwest Wisconsin

The 49th Assembly district is located within Wisconsin's 17th Senate district, along with the 50th and 51st Assembly districts.^[4]

• 
  Wyalusing Academy, in Prairie du Chien, with the Mississippi River in the background
• 
  Historic Grant County Courthouse in Lancaster.
• 
  Downtown Platteville.
• 
  Wyalusing State Park.

History

The district was created in the 1972 redistricting act (1971 Wisc. Act 304) which first established the numbered district system, replacing the previous system which allocated districts to specific counties.^[5] Under the pre-1972 districting scheme, Grant County was a single-district county. The 49th district was drawn mostly in line with the former Grant County district, but with several municipalities in the northwest portion of the state removed. The last representative of the Grant County district, James N. Azim Jr., was elected in 1972 as the first representative of the 49th Assembly district.^[6]

With the exception of the 1982 court-ordered redistricting plan, which scrambled all State Assembly districts,^[7] the 49th district has remained based in Grant County since 1972. The boundaries have varied somewhat, utilizing different combinations of neighboring municipalities in Richland, Iowa, and Lafayette counties.

List of past representatives

List of representatives to the Wisconsin State Assembly from the 49th district

Member	Party	Residence	Counties Represented	Term Start	Term End	Ref.
District created
James N. Azim Jr.	Rep.	Muscoda	Grant	January 1, 1973	June 14, 1976	[6]
Vacant				June 14, 1976	January 3, 1977
Robert S. Travis Jr.	Rep.	Platteville		January 3, 1977	January 3, 1983
Robert Jauch	Dem.	Poplar	Bayfield, Douglas	January 3, 1983	January 7, 1985
Robert S. Travis Jr.	Rep.	Platteville	Grant, Richland	January 7, 1985	January 5, 1987
David A. Brandemuehl	Rep.	Mount Ida		January 5, 1987	January 1, 2001
			Grant, Iowa
Gabe Loeffelholz	Rep.	Platteville	Grant, Lafayette, Richland	January 1, 2001	January 3, 2007
Phil Garthwaite	Dem.	Dickeyville		January 3, 2007	January 3, 2011
Travis Tranel	Rep.	Cuba City		January 3, 2011	Current	[3]

References

1. "Assembly District 49". Wisconsin Legislature. Retrieved February 2, 2021.
2. "Wisconsin Legislative Districts - Assembly District 49 Boundaries". Wisconsin Legislature. Retrieved February 2, 2021.
3. "Representative Travis Tranel". Wisconsin Legislature. Retrieved February 2, 2021.
4. An Act ... relating to: legislative redistricting (Act 94). Wisconsin Legislature. 2023. Retrieved February 23, 2024.
5. Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau (1973). "Legislature" (PDF). In Theobald, H. Rupert; Robbins, Patricia V. (eds.). The state of Wisconsin 1973 Blue Book (Report). Madison, Wisconsin: State of Wisconsin. pp. 227–230. Retrieved February 24, 2021.
6. Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau (1975). "Biographies" (PDF). In Theobald, H. Rupert; Robbins, Patricia V. (eds.). The state of Wisconsin 1975 Blue Book (Report). State of Wisconsin. pp. 54–55. Retrieved February 25, 2021.
7. Wisconsin State AFL-CIO v. Elections Board, 543 F. Supp. 630 (E.D. Wis. June 9, 1982).