Brooks to step down after long career in politics

After almost a quarter century representing northern Ozaukee County residents at the county and state levels, Rob Brooks is stepping down.

He announced earlier this month he will not run for re-election this fall to the 59th Assembly seat.

“I just turned 60. I have three granddaughters. I have businesses to run and I owe it to my employees to focus on them,” Brooks said Tuesday. “I don’t believe in term limits,  but it’s time.”

A Saukville resident, Brooks is a real estate developer and owns two bars and restaurants in the Saukville area.

His first foray into politics was when he ran for the Ozaukee County Board in 2002, representing the Village of Saukville.

Two years later, in 2004, he was elected by supervisors to be the board’s chairman and served in that position until 2014. During his tenure on the board, he helped lead its reorganization, reducing the dozens of committees to five and increasing its operational efficiency.

When 60th District Rep. Duey Stroebel (R-Cedarburg) announced he would run for Congress, Brooks, a Republican, launched a campaign to succeed him.

He defeated Jean Opitz, the wife of former State Representative David W. Opitz, in a primary and was unopposed in the general election.

He has been re-elected to each two-year term since.

In 2024, after districts were redrawn, Brooks shifted from the 60th to the 59th District, which consists of five counties instead of parts of Washington and Ozaukee counties, including Port Washington, which he had represented for a decade.

“Seventy percent of my new district is new to me,” he said at the time.

The 59th Assembly District is mostly rural and includes parts of Ozaukee, Washington, Sheboygan, Fond du Lac and Dodge counties.

It is considered a safe Republican seat.

He counts among his accomplishments in the Legislature the number of bills he was able to get passed in Madison.

“While representing one of the most conservative districts in the state, I was able to get a ton of legislation passed by working across the aisle,” he said.

He also was appointed in 2024 to the Wisconsin Professional Baseball Park District Board and was involved in negotiating the deal to keep the Milwaukee Brewers in Wisconsin.

He is currently the board’s vice chairman.

“We were able to keep the Brewers here without the stadium sales tax and keep the income taxes from the players in the state,” he said. “That was a substantial achievement.

“That’s one of the things I am most proud of,” he said.

Any regrets?

“I would have liked to have seen some major tax reform,” he said. “While we got rid of the personal property tax and state property tax, I think we left some stuff undone.”

He blamed that on the fact that Republican lawmakers and Democratic Gov. Tony Evers often battled over those and other issues.

He also said changes in the state Supreme Court, which has shifted to the left through recent elections, “have drastically affected things and slowly eroded the Legislature’s power.

“It’s only going to get worse,” he predicted. “But the pendulum swings back the other way.”

While the political acrimony in Madison wasn’t the leading reason for his decision to not run again, Brooks said it’s not helpful.

“Politics as a whole isn’t what it used to be,” he said. “It has never been a friendly game, going  back to the beginning of time, but with social media and everything, it’s gotten worse.”

He said he doesn’t know if he’ll continue to be involved in politics.

“I’m kind of working my way through that,” he said.

Brooks has already endorsed Bradley Petersen to fill the 59th District seat.

Petersen lives in Kewaskum and is a member of the Kewaskum School Board. No Democrat has announced a candidacy for the seat.