Background
Parisi was born in Madison, Wisconsin on October 24, 1960.
Parisi was born in Madison, Wisconsin on October 24, 1960.
He attended Middleton High School and Madison Area Technical College before earning a Bachelor of Arts in sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
From Madison, Wisconsin, Parisi currently serves as Dane County Executive, having taken office on April 18, 2011 and being re-elected in 2013 after running unopposed. He was elected as Dane County county clerk in the 1996 election, and served in that office until running for the Assembly in 2004. In 2004 Parisi was elected to represent Wisconsin"s 48th Assembly district.
The district encompasses McFarland, Monona, the Towns of Blooming Grove and Dunn and the far eastern portion of the City of Madison.
Land-use in the district ranges from high-intensity urban and heavy industrial to natural areas as well as several miles of Lake Monona shoreline. He was assigned to the standing committees on aging and long-term care, on agriculture, on budget review, on corrections and the courts, and on local and urban affairs
In 2006, he again faced Long in the general election, and defeated him by a fractionally larger margin. In 2008, he was unopposed in both the primary and general elections.
In 2010, he defeated Spencer Zimmerman (Republican) and Grant Gilbertson (independent running as a "Progress-Freedom" candidate), with 20,650 for Parisi, 6929 for Zimmerman, and 893 for Gilbertson.
His work in the State Assembly focused on criminal justice, ending domestic abuse and sexual assault and workforce development. In 2014 he testified in favor of a living wage before a Senate committee that had fast-tracked legislation against lieutenant On April 5, 2011, Parisi was elected Dane County Executive.
He began his two year term on April 18, and was elected to his first four year term in 2013.
Parisi succeeded Kathleen Falk who retired in the middle of her fourth four-year term. On April 14, 2011, Parisi resigned from the Wisconsin State Assembly., and was succeeded by Chris Taylor, who was unopposed in the general election after winning a six-way Democratic primary election.
A Democrat, Parisi served as a member of the Wisconsin State Assembly from 2005 until 2011.