Norman C. Anderson

After graduating from law school, Anderson worked briefly as an attorney in private practice while also continuing to serve as a deputy coroner. In 1956, Joseph Wheeler Bloodgood, who by then had become a state representative, announced he was leaving that office to run for district attorney. Anderson announced he would run to succeed Bloodgood in the Wisconsin State Assembly.^[4] Anderson faced no opposition in the Democratic primary and went on to defeat Republican Donald Scheak with 66% of the vote in the general election.^[5]

After one term, Anderson faced a primary challenge from former assistant district attorney and former Madison alderman Glenn L. Henry, and was narrowly defeated in the 1958 Democratic primary.^[6] Madison newspapers at the time suggested that Anderson had not taken the primary seriously and had not engaged in a vigorous campaign.^[7]

Although Anderson lost his seat, the Democrats gained the majority in the State Assembly for the first time in 26 years. At the organization of the new Democratic majority, they elected Anderson to serve as chief clerk of the Assembly in the new term.^[8] During this time, he also became a partner in a law firm with state senator Horace W. Wilkie.

In the spring of 1960, Glenn Henry announced he would not run for re-election to the Assembly.^[9] A day later, Anderson announced he would run to reclaim the seat.^[10] He defeated Pete Schmidt in the Democratic primary and faced no opposition in the general election.^[11] After returning to office in 1961, Anderson would go on to win seven more terms. He was elected assistant majority leader in 1965, and became majority leader at the start of the 1971 session. In December of 1971, Assembly speaker Robert T. Huber resigned in order to accept a seat on the highway commission,^[12] and Anderson was elected to fill out the remainder of the term, becoming the 68th speaker of the Wisconsin State Assembly.^[13] Anderson's victory in the speaker's election, defeating speaker pro tempore Joseph Sweda, was described as a victory of the ascendant liberal intellectual caucus over more conservative rural and labor Democrats.^[14] Anderson went on to win two more terms as speaker for the 1973–1974 and 1975–1976 sessions.

Anderson's political career came to an end largely because of his defense of members of his caucus on the state's budget-writing Joint Finance Committee who held a private meeting when preparing their plan for the 1975–1976 state budget—an apparent violation of the state's open meetings laws. Anderson spent much of 1976 fighting with the press and his primary opponent about this one issue.^[15] He ultimately lost the primary by 78 votes.^[16]

Anderson devoted much of the rest of his working years to his legal career, but he sometimes acted as a lobbyist and served several years as a member of Madison's police and fire commission and the Madison Redevelopment Authority. Anderson was mentioned as a potential judicial appointee several times, but never served in that capacity. He was a co-founder of the Dane County Natural Heritage Foundation—now Groundswell Conservancy—a nonprofit which works to preserve natural spaces in Madison and south central Wisconsin.^[2][17]

Norman Anderson was a first generation American born to Swedish American immigrants Carl and Alma Anderson.^[2]

Norman Anderson married twice. His first wife was Eleanor Shefferman, of Washington, D.C., who he met while they were both working for The Daily Cardinal at the University of Wisconsin. She also worked briefly for the Wisconsin State Journal. They married on the last day of 1954 and went on to have four children together. They were married nearly 50 years before Eleanor's death in 1994. Four years later, Norman married Peggy Powers, and they lived together until his death in 2020.^[2]