Wisconsin state Rep. Steve Doyle of Onalaska announces he’s running for reelection

Wisconsin Democratic state Assembly Rep. Steve Doyle of Onalaska broke a bit of news Wednesday on La Crosse Talk PM on whether he’s running for reelection.

“I intend to run again and I will be sending out a formal announcement next week,” Doyle said.

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La Crosse Talk PM airs weekdays at 5:06 p.m. Listen on the WIZM app, online here, or on 92.3 FM / 1410 AM / 106.7 FM (north of Onalaska). Find all the podcasts here or subscribe to La Crosse Talk PM wherever you get your podcasts.

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Doyle has represented the 94th Assembly District since a special election in 2011, right as Republicans drew new voting boundaries that put him in the minority — a 13-year position that made him question running for reelection.

“I gave a lot of consideration to it,” he said. “It isn’t a whole lot of fun being in the minority in the Legislature, which is what happened — we lost the (majority) several months before I got elected.”

Doyle told a story about recently getting legislation passed that waives license tax for service dogs.

The only problem, it took six years to get the bill passed and needed a Republican author so it would go through the GOP-controlled state Legislature. Something he doesn’t mind, but wasn’t thrilled about how long it took to get a fairly simple bill through.

It’s things like that which had Doyle on the fence about running for reelection.

But when the Wisconsin Supreme Court ordered new voting maps, it did two things. First, the state Assembly now has a chance to flip to Democratic control.

“Never been in the majority,” Doyle said. “This year, potentially, I could be.”

Second, and perhaps more importantly, those new maps moved the north side of La Crosse into Doyle’s district, which means he could represent the area in which he grew up.