David Riemer has worked with Democrats and Republicans to create path-breaking public policy at the state level and influence national policy. After graduating from Milwaukee’s Riverside High School, he attended Harvard College (AB, History and Literature, 1970) and Harvard Law School (JD, 1975). Riemer returned to Wisconsin in 1975 to serve as legal advisor to Governor Patrick Lucey. He later held legal, budget, and policymaking positions with U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy (1978-1981), Mayor John Norquist (1988-2001), and Governor Jim Doyle (2003).

Riemer has been active in politics as both candidate and advisor. In 2004, he ran against Scott Walker for Milwaukee County Executive. Riemer went on to direct the Wisconsin Health Project (2004-2008) and served as Founding Director and Senior Fellow for the Community Advocates Public Policy Institute (2008-Present).

Over the course of his career, Riemer played a lead role in drafting and gaining passage of over a dozen City of Milwaukee budgets and ordinances. He helped to design and secure enactment of Wisconsin laws that created the State Public Defender program, Transitional Jobs, the state’s Earned Income Tax Credit, and the BadgerCare health insurance program. He has also assisted in crafting two bills in the U.S. Senate to create a federal Transitional Jobs program.

Riemer is the author of The Prisoners of Welfare: Liberating America’s Poor from Unemployment and Low Wages (Praeger, 1988). His book—Putting Government In Its Place: The Case for a New Deal 3.0—appeared in the fall of 2019 (HenschelHAUS).

Riemer’s website, Putting Government In Its Place, is www.govinplace.org