Longtime state lawmaker Bob Jauch announces retirement

By Ryan Ekvall |Wisconsin Reporter

MADISON – After clocking more than 750,000 miles traveling back and forth from the far reaches of northern Wisconsin to the pits of Madison, Sen. Bob Jauch, D-Poplar, said he doesn’t have enough in the tank to continue as state senator.

After 31 years in the Legislature, Jauch announced Wednesday he would not seek re-election in 2014.

Jauch may be best known over the past few years for his hard-line stance against the iron mining regulation reform bill that Gogebic Taconite, LLC lobbied for and helped draft. The legislation drew hundreds of hours of debate marked by protest, grandstanding and vitriol on the legislative floors and in committee hearings. That bill was eventually passed on partisan lines, and GTAC is now pursuing a multi-billion dollar mining project in Jauch’s district.

Jauch, Sen. Tim Cullen, D-Janesville, and Sen. Dale Schultz, R – Richland Center, drafted what they said was compromise mining reform legislation. However, GTAC representatives and other Republicans balked.

Wednesday, Jauch joked the rumors were not true; he would not be leaving the Legislature to become a GTAC lobbyist.

“More and more decisions in this building are being made behind closed doors with special interest groups who have endless amounts of money,” he said.

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