He worked variously as a carpenter, cabinetmaker, private detective, foreman in an automobile factory, superintendent and principal of a mechanical school in Minneapolis, before going into business as a general contractor in 1953.
[1][2] Except for serving on his local draft board in 1938, Kelly held no public office before being elected to the Wisconsin State Assembly's Milwaukee County 10th district (the 10th Ward of the City of Milwaukee) in 1958.
[3] In 1960, Kelly was himself defeated in a six-way Democratic primary, coming in second to 20-year-old college student Fred Kessler, who took a plurality with 38% of the vote, and went on to defeat Republican Herbert Smith in the general election.
[4] In 1962, Kelly regained his old seat (Kessler was pursuing an unsuccessful run for the Wisconsin State Senate), winning a plurality in a four-way Democratic primary, and defeating Republican Daniel Dawson 3813 to 2185.
from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and worked with Governor John W. Reynolds, Jr.'s staff on reapportionment litigation) again unseated Kelly, taking an absolute majority in a five-way Democratic primary: Kelly came in third.