Steven C. Brist was born in 1954 in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and graduated from Chippewa Falls High School. He received his undergraduate degree from Georgetown University, after which he worked as a realtor, a savings and loan officer, a legislative assistant, and a staff member to Wisconsin Democratic congressman David Obey. He served as Democratic Party ward committeeman from 1972 to 1976, and Chippewa County supervisor, 1976-1977.
Brist began his first term as the 67th District's Democratic representative to the Wisconsin State Assembly in 1976 at the age of 22. He served as Majority Caucus Secretary in 1977, as well as serving on the Elections, Revenue, Administrative Rules, and Judiciary Committees, and the Legislative Council Committee on Constitutional and Statutory Review. During this legislative term, Brist became engaged to Monica A. Burkert; the couple later married and settled in Colfax, Wisconsin. After completing his two-year term, Brist attended Law School at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, graduating in 1982. He was elected to the State Assembly once again in 1982, and re-elected in 1984.
While in the Wisconsin State Assembly from 1982 to 1986, Brist served as Majority Caucus secretary, and served on the Administrative Rules, Agriculture, Elections, Judiciary, Forest Productivity and Rural Development, Condominium Issues, Statutory Review, Commerce and Consumer Affairs, and Educational Communications Board Committees, the Survey Committee on Tax Exemptions, the Legislative Council Committee on Mining, and the Study Committee on Legislative Services. He chaired and vice-chaired the Administrative Rules Committee, and co-chaired the Survey Committee on Tax Exemptions.
Brist was instrumental in creating legislation relating to securities, property and real estate, employee disclosure of improper activities in governmental units (whistleblower protection), and the designation of milk as the official state beverage.
After completing his third term in the Legislature, Steven C. Brist worked as an attorney and eventually joined the Madison City Attorney's Office, where he currently [2007] serves as an Assistant City Attorney.
