[1] This session represents the third time the Legislature failed to pass a redistricting act on schedule.

Ultimately, a panel of federal judges would implement a punitive redistricting plan in 1982, and after Democrats gained unified control of government in 1983, they passed a superseding plan.

Senators representing even-numbered districts were newly elected for this session and were serving the first two years of a four-year term.

Senators representing odd-numbered districts were serving the third and fourth year of a four-year term, having been elected in the general election of November 7, 1978.

[1] The governor of Wisconsin during this entire term was Republican Lee S. Dreyfus, of Portage County, serving the second two years of a four-year term, having won election in the 1978 Wisconsin gubernatorial election.