January 29, 2012

APPLETON — Wisconsin has never sent a woman to the U.S. Senate or elected a female governor, and just more than a quarter of the seats in the state Legislature are held by women.

Emerge Wisconsin is poised to change that.

Modeled on a national program, the Madison-based nonprofit is training a generation of progressive, Democratic women how to run for public office and win.

“(The program) helped me to consolidate the campaign structure and it helped me to be more effective in my message,” said state Rep. Penny Bernard Schaber, D-Appleton, who completed the training alongside state Sen. Jessica King, D-Oshkosh, in 2007.