Альберта Дарлинг: Американ саяхаты және сенат мүшесінің өмірі мен қызметі

American politician

Alberta Darling (born April 28, 1944) is an American educator, politician and former member of the Wisconsin State Senate. She represented Wisconsin's 8th State Senate district from 1993 through 2022 as a Republican. Her constituency included many of the municipalities directly north and northwest of Milwaukee and part of the city of Milwaukee. She also served three years in the Wisconsin State Assembly. Before entering public office, she was a teacher and marketing director.

Darling was born in Hammond, Indiana, and raised in Peoria, Illinois, where she graduated from Richwoods High School. She attended the University of Wisconsin–Madison, receiving a Bachelor of Science degree in secondary education in 1966. After graduating from UW Madison, she moved to Milwaukee and did graduate work at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee from 1972 to 1974. Prior to her election to the legislature, Darling taught high school English and was later the marketing and business development director for the Milwaukee Art Museum. Darling met her husband, William "Bill" Darling, during their time at UW Madison. The two married in 1967, and up until his death in the spring of 2015, Bill was an ear, nose and throat surgeon in southeast Wisconsin. Darling and her husband had two children and three grandchildren. She is a longtime resident of River Hills, Wisconsin, which she represented in the Senate.

Darling first joined the Wisconsin State Legislature by winning a special election in 1990 for the 10th district, defeating Rick Graber in the primary. She served the remainder of the term and a full two year term in the State Assembly before being elected in 1992 to the State Senate, a seat she has held ever since. Darling faced a contentious election in 2008, though she fended off a challenge from State Representative Sheldon Wasserman by a mere percentage point and would go unopposed in the next two regular election cycles in 2012 and 2016. In 2020, Darling faced a challenge from Neal Plotkin, a sales representative and substitute teacher from Glendale. The race was heavily targeted by Democrats amidst eroding support for Republicans in suburban districts, and Darling was outspent as Plotkin was boosted by a significant edge in outside spending. However, Darling won re election by eight percentage points (a margin nearly identical to the 2011 recall) as she garnered split ticket support among Joe Biden voters to secure a comfortable win despite a razor thin 167 vote margin in the presidential election in her district. Throughout her tenure in the Legislature, Darling has earned a reputation as a fiscal conservative with moderate views on some issues. She endorsed Ted Cruz over Donald Trump in the 2016 Republican presidential primary. From 2000 to 2021, she served on the influential Joint Finance Committee (responsible for the state budget) and notably served as the longtime Senate co chair. Her six sessions chairing the committee is tied for most in state history.