Michael Gruper Ellis (February 21, 1941 – July 20, 2018) was an American farmer and Republican politician from Neenah, Wisconsin.
[1] The next year, the incumbent state representative for that area, David O. Martin, announced he would run for Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin rather than seek another term in the Assembly.
[9] Ellis easily won a fifth term in 1978, receiving 69% of the vote over 23-year old challenger Kathleen Anderson.
[11] During the 1981–1982 legislative term, Wisconsin's redistricting was gridlocked by divided government and was ultimately carried out by a court-order from a panel of federal judges, resulting in a significant reconfiguration of Senate districts.
[12] Goyke and Ellis had personally clashed during the legislature's attempt at redistricting earlier that year, as Goyke expected to keep most of Oshkosh and add a small portion of Appleton to the district, but Ellis resisted that plan because it would result in dividing his native city of Neenah into two Assembly districts.
[13] They had also been in competition during that legislative term over who would take credit for bill to support the Fox River lock system.
With full control of government, however, Republicans quickly ran into major controversy with the infamous "budget-repair bill" which stripped public employees of collective bargaining power.
[27] Before those recalls, however, Republicans managed to pass a new redistricting act which became infamous as one of the most aggressive and successful gerrymanders in the country.
But his reputation took a severe hit in April 2014, when a recording was released in which Ellis was heard on tape scheming with allies to set up an illegal outside political action committee to launch attacks against his likely 2014 opponent, Penny Bernard Schaber.
[29][30][31] The tape was particularly shocking because Ellis had been an outspoken critic of dark money PACs and their growing influence in the political process.
[34] Ellis left office at the end of his term, in January 2015, and largely retired from public life.
[2] He married Sandra Lou "Sandy" Schmallenberg on July 17, 1971, at Emanuel Lutheran Church, in New London, Wisconsin.