Mary Panzer

Mary E. Panzer
Mary E. Panzer
Majority Leader of the Wisconsin Senate
	In office; January 6, 2003 – January 3, 2005
Preceded by	Russ Decker & Fred Risser (acting co-leaders)
Succeeded by	Dale Schultz
Minority Leader of the Wisconsin Senate
	In office; January 25, 2000 – January 6, 2003
Preceded by	Michael Ellis
Succeeded by	Jon Erpenbach
Member of the Wisconsin Senate; from the 20th district
	In office; September 30, 1993 – January 3, 2005
Preceded by	Donald K. Stitt
Succeeded by	Glenn Grothman
Member of the Wisconsin State Assembly
	In office; January 4, 1993 – September 30, 1993
Preceded by	Michael A. Lehman
Succeeded by	Glenn Grothman
Constituency	59th district
	In office; January 7, 1985 – January 4, 1993
Preceded by	Cletus J. Vanderperren
Succeeded by	Carol Owens
Constituency	53rd district
	In office; January 3, 1983 – January 7, 1985
Preceded by	Patricia A. Goodrich
Succeeded by	Marlin Schneider
Constituency	72nd district
	In office; February 6, 1980 – January 3, 1983
Preceded by	James R. Lewis
Succeeded by	Cletus J. Vanderperren
Constituency	53rd district
Personal details
Born	September 19, 1951 (age 75); Waupun, Wisconsin, U.S.
Party	Republican
Parent	Frank E. Panzer (father);
Alma mater	University of Wisconsin, Madison (BA)
Profession	banker

Mary E. Panzer (September 19, 1951) is an American lobbyist, banker, and former politician from Washington County, Wisconsin. A Republican, she served 25 years in the Wisconsin Legislature, including 11 years in the Wisconsin Senate (1993–2005) and 14 years in the State Assembly (1980–1993). In her last five years in office, she was floor leader of the Republicans in the Senate, serving as majority leader for the 2003–2004 term. Since leaving office, she has worked as a consultant and lobbyist in Madison, Wisconsin, with her firm Panzer Public Affairs Consulting, LLC.

Her father, Frank E. Panzer, was one of the longest-serving state legislators in Wisconsin history, having served more than 34 years in the Wisconsin Senate, from the 1930s through the 1960s.

Biography

Born in Waupun, Wisconsin, Panzer was educated at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, after which she was a banker and worked in the Wisconsin State Legislature.

In 1980, Panzer was elected to the Wisconsin State Assembly in a special election to replace fellow Republican James R. Lewis (who had been convicted of perjury). (She had almost defeated then-incumbent Lewis in the 1974 Republican primary.) She served until 1993, when she was elected to the Wisconsin State Senate in another special election.^[1] Panzer eventually rose to be the majority leader of the senate.

In the Republican primary election in September 2004, Panzer was herself defeated for renomination by her successor in the state assembly, Glenn Grothman, who alleged that she was not sufficiently conservative for the modern-day Republican Party.^[2] Grothman won with a vote of 79% to 21% for Panzer.^[3]

After leaving office, Panzer started Panzer Public Affairs Consulting in Madison, Wisconsin, and has worked as a lobbyist and government affairs consultant since that time.