Emanuel Brunette was born in the town of Howard, Brown County, Wisconsin, on January 16, 1880. After completing high school, he entered the State Normal School at Oshkosh, but left in 1900 before completing the requirements for a degree. He then worked for his father in Howard until 1905, when he opened a grocery store. Brunette operated the store for two years and then obtained a position as manager of a stone quarry at Duck Creek.
Brunette served two years as a county supervisor. He was elected to and served in the Wisconsin State Assembly from 1928 to 1929, and in the State Senate from 1933 to 1936. While in the Senate, he was a member of the University Investigating Committee (1935) which investigated charges of the presence of communists and the teaching of communism in the university system. In 1936 he served as a member of the State Emergency Board, whose main function was to take care of unexpected contingencies in state finance.
