Governor Scott McCallum

SCOTT MC CALLUM was born in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. He attended Macalester College where he received a bachelor’s degree in economics and political science in 1972. He went on to earn a master’s degree in international economics from Johns Hopkins University in 1974. He founded and managed a real estate investment firm in the mid-1970s. He worked as an aide to Congressman William Steiger and in 1976 was elected to the Wisconsin State Senate. His legislative accomplishments as state senator included increasing penalties for drunk driving offenses and assaults on prison guards; creating a health insurance risk pool for people considered uninsurable; sunsetting obsolete legislation; and indexing individual income taxes to account for inflation. Named lieutenant governor in 1987, he led the effort to review and evaluate state boards and agencies, reducing the number from 144 to 63 and saving the state more than $1.3 million annually. He also chaired the National Council of Lieutenant Governors and was appointed to the Environmental Protection Agency’s advisory council by President George H.W. Bush. McCallum became governor in February 2001 when Tommy G. Thompson was confirmed as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Defeated for election in 2002, he was named a Senior Fellow of the Discovery Institute, designated to focus on issues of state and regional development.