As a young child, Lena Taylor witnessed Jimmy Carter’s presidential inauguration. As a young woman in law school, she met and was inspired by U.S. Senator Carol Moseley Braun. She grew up idolizing longtime city councilor Marvin Pratt, who represented Milwaukee’s 1st District. It wasn’t until years later that Taylor, 45, realized that she was on a path she was destined to follow.

Taylor, state senator for Wisconsin’s 4th District, grew up just six houses from where she currently lives with her 12-year-old son, Isaiah. She represents the people who watched her play as a child, who admonished her when she misbehaved and who were proud of her when she achieved. It means something to her that she lives in the neighborhood where she grew up. “I have a strong connection to this district,” Taylor said. “This neighborhood made me. My constituents know me.”

Politics is perception. In Taylor’s words, she’s perceived as confrontational, unyielding, a fighter and down-to-earth. She admits some of those things are true, but she also contends that those traits are the very things you want in a person who is fighting your fight.

“People of Wisconsin are hardworking. We want basic stuff: education, health care and voting rights. Don’t make a badger mad,” she said. “How do you help people to know their rights so they can speak up when their rights are in peril?”

Politics is about compromise, but Taylor has a few expectations. “I expect the system to be fair. Don’t change the rules. I expect that we will get something done.” She’s quick to commend her colleagues on the other side of the aisle. “Things that need to get done, we get done.”

In 2011, the process of doing the people’s business hit a boondoggle. Taylor was one of the 14 democratic legislators who left the state to prevent a quorum for Governor Scott Walker’s Budget Repair legislation to repeal collective bargaining on benefits for public employees. “Leaving was unexpected. I was convinced there were at least three republicans who represented districts with union workers,” she said of swaying the vote to the democrats favor. “Yes, the debate would be hard, but they couldn’t just take the table away. It was a 144-page document. We needed to have some discussion about it.”

Taylor thought she’d be home in a day or two, after all there was Isaiah to consider. “After a day or so, I came home. I wanted to go to church,” she said, but soon realized the commotion attached to the lawmakers’ action. Taylor arranged for her son’s welfare and went back to Illinois -- for three weeks, seeing her son only on weekends when her family brought him to Illinois.

She understood the anger felt by her republican colleagues. Once the legislators returned to the state, it was very difficult, Taylor said. “Randy Hopper and I were friends, but he had trouble even talking to me when we returned,” she said of the former republican state senator who was one of the recall casualties in 2011.

One morning a dead rat was found on Taylor’s doorstep. “You can’t have sound policy and do the people’s business without communication,” she said. “Yes, there were threats, and I knew it would take time and extra effort to be able to work together again.”

The proud people of the 4th District are primarily women and people of color, Taylor said. “For them, the issue is jobs.”

She sees education as one of Wisconsin’s important concerns. “We need better education K through 12.” Taylor then stressed that in December, MPS students continued to post some of the lowest reading scores in the country when compared to their peers in other major urban school districts. “We need technical colleges and training for jobs. We can’t cut funding on things like Job Corps and expect that this will happen. A safety net is not a hand out. It’s a second chance.”

Ironically, Taylor never liked school. “My dad was a steelworker -- and I wanted go into the Marines.” But her mother would have none of that, Taylor said. “She packed me up, drove me down to UWM and signed me up. That was it. I was enrolled.”

After graduating from the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee, she applied to law school at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. “They told me to wait a year. I’m a first-generation college graduate -- I was concerned about where I would end up.”

She received a scholarship to Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. “Milwaukee was a challenging place when it came to racial issues. I wanted to leave and not come back.” But in law school she realized that Carbondale had issues, too. “I knew anywhere I’d go there’d be racial issues. I had to decide whether to be part of the problem or part of the solution.”

After graduation, she applied for a position with Milwaukee’s district attorney’s office. A newly minted lawyer, she wasn’t hired. So she became a public defender. “God knew I needed to be softened,” Taylor recalled. “I wanted to clean up crime and rid the world of racism -- I had high ambitions. Being a PD gave me a different perspective. I got balanced.”

After two and a half years in the public defender’s office, she went into private practice. But the desire for public service and to work for change began to get stronger. “I grew up in a neighborhood where Marvin Pratt was loved and respected. I always wanted his job -- to represent his district.”

Leon Young, then representative for the 16th Assembly District, suggested she run for state government. Now she had to make a choice: to run for Pratt’s former aldermanic seat or for a state assembly seat. “I was living on Highland Avenue at the time. If I wanted to run for 1st District, I needed to move back to the district.” So she packed up her household and called a mover. “The day I was to move, it was raining and the movers never showed up.” She took it as a sign and entered the assembly race. “I was told it was a part-time job,” she remembered with a chuckle. “I had a law practice, a son to take care of and I owned income property. It was more than a part-time job.”

Taylor was in the state assembly for only 18 months before going to Pratt seeking advice about running for the 4th District State Senate seat, which was recently vacated by Gwen Moore who had been elected to Congress. “But I found out that he was thinking of running, too,” she said. When he decided not to run, Taylor entered the race and won in 2004.

In 2008, Taylor ran against Scott Walker for county executive. “People should have a choice,” she said. “County assets were being squandered. There were issues with the transit system. Citizens’ concerns were not being addressed.” She lost the election.

A public servant should be dedicated to his or her constituency, be patient and persistent, and be willing to do some things that are not easy, Taylor said. “Do I get discouraged? Yes, but I’m hopeful. I believe we can work together. People can change. Circumstances can change. Things can get better.

“I want Isaiah to get a quality education in a public setting, live in a community that has opportunity for him as an African-American male,” she said. “I hope I’ve done some things that will help him, and others, in the future.”