| By Big Radio News Staff |
Former state Sen. Tim Cullen of Janesville has died.
Family members say the man considered a great centrist in state politics — a statesman revered by statewide Democrats and Republicans equally — died Monday afternoon after he was hospitalized with a heart condition.
Cullen’s family says he died at a Madison hospital. He was born and raised in the heart of Janesville, and lived most of his life in the city as he launched a long, successful career in state politics.
Cullen, a Democrat, served two stints in the state Senate, from 1975 to 1987 and again from 2011 to 2015. He was the Senate Majority Leader from 1982 to 1987, and then was named secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Health and Social Services under Republican Gov. Tommy Thompson from 1987 to 1988.
In a statement, Democratic Party of Rock County Chairwoman Theresa Boston tells Big Radio the county Democrats got word Monday afternoon from Cullen’s inner circle that the aging statesman had died.
The local Democrats said they were still processing the news of the passing of a lawmaker who came from a different era in politics.
At the start of his second run in the state Senate in 2011, Cullen became a key figure in the fight against former Gov. Scott Walker’s Act 10 law that stripped most public employee unions of their collective bargaining rights.
Cullen was among a group of Democratic state lawmakers who skipped state borders and holed up at the former Clock Tower Inn in Rockford, Illinois for weeks in an attempt to prevent a Senate quorum and stall on a vote on Walker’s divisive bill.
Cullen was known for bringing a businessperson’s pragmatism along with progressive ideas of basic fairness for workers, to his brand of Democratic politics. State lawmakers of both conservative and liberal political stripes considered Cullen a bipartisan ally who sought to see Democrats and Republicans work together.
Between his terms at the state Capitol, Cullen founded the Tim Cullen Institute, which selected local high school students to meet and learn from local, state and federal government officials.
The effort brought Cullen statewide and national kudos from lawmakers and public policy who appreciated Cullen’s efforts to create more civil, inclusive relationships in the political sphere.
In a statement Tuesday, Gov. Tony Evers lauded Cullen, calling the man “a dedicated public servant” who “devoted much his life to good governance and improving the state that raised him.”
On an radio appearance in September, Cullen told a Big Radio talk show host that from the 2010s on, Cullen watched state politics become ever more partisan.
“I was in the legislature back in the ’70s and ’80s, and I came back in 2010. And the difference between how the parties worked together — you had bipartisan agreements, etc., etc. then, in the ’70s and early ’80s, versus when I came back in 2010, 2011, (the legislature) had become a very, very severe partisan place.”
Cullen, a prolific writer — and in later days, a willing and favored guest orator at local social events — also published a book earlier this year titled “Wisconsin Gerrymandering: The Fight for Permanent Fair Maps and Why It Matters.”
He lived to see some state reform in how political district lines are drawn. A governor-Tony-Evers-led redistricting came in time for the 2024 election.
Cullen also lived to see a Dane County judge repeal Walker’s Act. 10, although now that ruling faces certain Republican challenge in the courts, and is likely bound for the state Supreme court.
Cullen was often a champion for the working class, including for the once powerful local branch of labor — UAW Local 95. In recent years, Cullen wrote and lectured extensively on the political and economic fallout surrounding General Motors’ 2009 closure of its century-old Janesville Assembly plant.
Longtime Janesville journalist, statewide political analyst, and radio broadcaster Stan Milam, a longtime friend of Cullen’s, spoke at an induction of Cullen to the Janesville Craig High School Wall of honor. In the speech, Milam called Cullen selfless in his work to unite people — youths included — in civic life and in politics.
Here are Milam’s words from that induction:
“One day, I told Tim I was not sure how I could ever repay him for all he has done for me,” Milam said.
“Tim said, ‘Stan, I don’t keep score,’ The message, of course, is do what you do, not for reward, but for results and for your friends.”
To which Milam added, “Thanks, Tim, for all you do, and all you are.”
— Big Radio news anchors Tim Seeman and Neil Johnson gathered information for this report.
