Former Democratic state senator Paul Offner was born in Bennington, Vermont, on August 7, 1942. His father was art historian Richard Offner, and much of the younger Offner's boyhood was spent in Florence, Italy. Politics was also undoubtedly an influence on his formative years; Offner's maternal great-great-great grandfather Elbridge Gerry was vice-president, and in later generations many members of the family had careers in public service.
Offner returned to the United States to study at the Groton School; he then received a B.A. in history from Amherst College (1964), a master's degree in public affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University (1966), and a Ph.D. in economics from Princeton in 1970. During this period Offner became active in several electoral campaigns, and he established a friendship with Allard Lowenstein, who had a great influence on his political philosophy. For three years after finishing graduate school Offner worked in Washington, D.C., for senators Thomas Eagleton, Walter Mondale, and Gaylord Nelson.
Anxious for a political career of his own, Offner located in La Crosse, Wisconsin in 1973, where he worked as assistant director of the Western Wisconsin Health Planning Organization and taught corporate finance at UW-La Crosse.
In 1974 Offner launched his career in electoral politics with a successful campaign for the Wisconsin Assembly. In 1976 he moved up to the Senate, becoming the first Democrat to be elected to the Senate from the La Crosse district during the twentieth century; in 1980 he was reelected to a second term.
Offner quickly earned a reputation as one of the most intelligent and hard-working legislators, and he was repeatedly named one of the top Wisconsin senators. In 1979 he was co-chairman of the Joint Survey Committee on Retirement Systems and the Retirement Research Committee, vice-chair of the Human Services Committee, and chair of the Legislative Council's Committee on the UW System Enrollment Funding Formula. During the 1979, 1981, 1983 sessions he was a member of the powerful Joint Finance Committee, also chairing the Health and Social Services Subcommittee during several sessions. In 1983 the Democrats in the Senate elected him assistant majority leader.
Offner's ambitions for higher political office were well known. In 1978 he was a candidate for lieutenant governor. Although unsuccessful in the Democratic primary, he later served as issues coordinator for Martin Schreiber's gubernatorial campaign. In 1982 Offner was defeated by Steve Gunderson in an attempt to win election to the U.S. House of Representatives. It was generally agreed in the press that Offner's inability to translate the regard with which he was held by other legislators into successful election to higher officer was at least partially due to his lack of Wisconsin roots and to his reserved personal style.
Offner's legislative accomplishments were considerable. Much of his reputation stemmed from his broad understanding of the problems of local taxes and his concern over health care costs, and he authored specific legislation aimed at regulating hospital construction and rates. He was also a leading advocate of the concept of health maintenance organizations. After co-chairing the Employee Relations Study Commission (the Stevens-Offner Commission), in 1977 he authored legislation which completely overhauled the Wisconsin civil service system and which established the cabinet-level Department of Employee Relations. During 1980 Offner and Speaker Tom Loftus emerged as leading Democratic critics of the Dreyfus administration. Together they put forward a program to allow for reform of the welfare system and student competency testing.
Apparently discouraged by his election loss in 1982 and by the personal debt which he acquired as a result, Offner resigned from the legislature in December, 1983. He later accepted a position as deputy director for Medicaid Administration with the Ohio Department of Human Services.
