Democratic lieutenant governor and former state senator James T. Flynn was born in Chicago on September 25, 1944. He attended Marquette University, receiving a B.A. in economics in 1970 and completing his law degree in 1973.
In 1972 Flynn was elected to the State Senate from the Eighth District which included Wauwatosa, West Allis, West Milwaukee, and portions of Greendale. During the ten years that Flynn served in the Senate he was appointed to a number of powerful committees and served in a leadership capacity on several. Among these were chairmanships of the Judiciary and Consumer Affairs Committee, the Joint Committee on Finance and the Joint Committee on Revision, Repeal, and Uniform Laws. From 1979 through 1982 he was assistant Democratic majority leader.
In 1982 Flynn was elected lieutenant governor on a Democratic ticket headed by Anthony Earl. In addition to serving in his constitutional position as president of the Senate, Flynn was appointed secretary of the Department of Development.
