{{Short description|American politician and businessman (1918–1988)}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Clifford Krueger | office = Minority leader of the Wisconsin Senate | image = Clifford Krueger.jpg | caption = Krueger {{circa}} 1948 | predecessor2 = William McNeight | term_start = January 6, 1975 | term_end = January 5, 1981 | predecessor = Fred Risser | successor = Walter Chilsen | constituency1 = 12th district | term_start1 = January 7, 1957 | term_end1 = January 3, 1983 | office1 = Member of the Wisconsin Senate | predecessor1 = Bernard J. Gehrmann | successor1 = Lloyd H. Kincaid | term_end2 = January 3, 1955 | term_start2 = January 6, 1947 | party = {{unbulleted list | Republican | Progressive (before 1946) }} | successor2 = Carl Lauri | birth_date = {{Birth date|1918|06|24}} | birth_place = Madison, Wisconsin, U.S. | death_date = {{Death date and age|1988|10|15|1918|06|24}} | death_place = Wausau, Wisconsin, U.S. | death_cause = Hepatitis | resting_place = Merrill Memorial Park, {{nowrap|Merrill, Wisconsin}} | nickname = Tiny | spouse = | children = | alma_mater = | occupation = businessman, circus performer, politician. | constituency2 = 25th district }}
'''Clifford W. "Tiny" Krueger''' (June 24, 1918{{spaced ndash}}October 15, 1988) was an American politician, businessman, and circus performer from the U.S. state of Wisconsin. He served 34 years in the Wisconsin State Senate representing vast multi-county districts in the northern part of the state.
==Circus career== Born in Madison, Wisconsin, Krueger graduated from high school in Merrill, Wisconsin.<ref name="Obit">{{cite news|title=Ex-State Senator Krueger Dies at 70 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/30279782/clifford_krueger_19181988/ |newspaper=Leader Telegram |date=October 17, 1988 |page=8 |via = Newspapers.com |accessdate = April 5, 2019 }} {{Open access}}</ref><ref>''The Wisconsin Blue Book 1946,'' p. 37. Biography of Senator Clifford Krueger</ref> Krueger was in the Sheboygan-based Seils-Sterling Circus performing as the fat-boy weighing 425 pounds.<ref name="Obit"/><ref name="Pommer">{{cite news|first = Matt |last = Pommer |title=Common Man Lost Friend in Clifford 'Tiny' Krueger |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/30246691/clifford_krueger_19181988/ |newspaper=Fond Du Lac Commonwealth Reporter |date=October 25, 1988 |page=4 |via = Newspapers.com |accessdate = April 4, 2019 }} {{Open access}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.showhistory.com/FatPages/fat2.html|title=an Encyclopedia of Novelty & Variety Performers & Showfolk - Show History|website=www.showhistory.com}}</ref><ref>''The Billboard'', July 23, 1949, vol. 61, no. 30, p. 62</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/dictionary/index.asp?action=view&term_id=12123&search_term=seils|title=Seils-Sterling Circus|publisher=}}</ref>
==Business and political career== Krueger owned a tavern in Merrill, and served on the Merrill Common Council. He was also a member of the Lions Club, and the Farm Bureau.
In 1942, Krueger was the Wisconsin Progressive Party candidate for Wisconsin's 25th State Senate district (having won the Progressive primary election by only twelve votes in a three-way race), losing to Republican William McNeight, with 6512 votes to 11,603 for McNeight and 3,437 for Democrat Donald J. MacCormick. (Republican incumbent Otto Mueller had not been a candidate.)<ref>[http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/WI.WIBlueBk1944 Ohm, Howard F.; Kuehn, Hazel L., ed. ''The Wisconsin Blue Book, 1944'' Madison: State of Wisconsin, 1944; pp. 512, 581]</ref>
In 1946, with the Progressive Party having dissolved, he ran in the Republican primary election, defeating McNeight and going on to win the general election against McNeight (running as a write-in candidate) and Socialist former Assemblyman Herman Marth. Krueger drew 16,859 votes, to 7,827 write-in votes McNeight and 601 for Marth.<ref>[http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/WI.WIBlueBk1948 Ohm, Howard F.; Kuehn, Hazel L., ed. ''The Wisconsin Blue Book, 1948'' Madison: State of Wisconsin, 1948; pp. 608, 679]</ref> Having defeated two challengers in the 1950 primary, he was re-elected in the general election; but his district was split in the next re-apportionment and his term ended in 1955.<ref name="Pommer"/><ref>''The Wisconsin Blue Book 1946,'' p. 44 Biography of Senator Clifford Krueger</ref><ref name="auto">''The Wisconsin Blue Book 1981,'' p. 37 Biography of Senator Clifford Krueger</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/dictionary/index.asp?action=view&term_id=2818&search_term=kruger|title=Clifford Krueger, Wisconsin Historical Society|publisher=}}</ref><ref name="Obit"/> In 1956, he returned to the Senate from the new 12th District (Iron, Lincoln, Oneida, Price, Taylor, and Vilas counties),<ref>[http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/WI.WIBlueBk1958 Toepel, M. G.; Kuehn, Hazel L., ed. ''The Wisconsin Blue Book, 1958'' Madison: State of Wisconsin, 1958; pp. 671, 776]</ref> and would hold that office continuously until his 1983 retirement. He was the Senate Minority Leader for the Republicans in the 1975, 1977, and 1979 sessions, but said that some Republicans never really forgave him for having started as a Progressive.<ref name="Obit"/><ref name="auto"/>
==Later life== Krueger retired in 1982.<ref name="Obit 2">{{cite news|title=Hundreds Attend Krueger Funeral |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/30312637/clifford_krueger_19181988/ |newspaper=Wausau Daily Herald |date=October 19, 1988 |page=1 |via = Newspapers.com |accessdate = April 6, 2019 }} {{Open access}}</ref> He died of hepatitis in 1988 at age 70 in Wausau, Wisconsin.<ref name="Obit 2"/>
==References== {{reflist}}
{{s-start}} {{s-ppo}} {{s-bef|before=Frederick H. Rice}} {{s-ttl|title=Republican nominee for Secretary of State of Wisconsin|years=1986}} {{s-aft|after=Robert Thompson}} {{s-par|us-wi-sen}} {{s-bef|before = William McNeight }} {{s-ttl|title = {{nowrap|Member of the Wisconsin Senate}} {{nowrap|from the 25th district}} |years= January 6, 1947{{spaced ndash}}January 3, 1955 }} {{s-aft|after = Carl Lauri }} {{s-bef|before = Bernard J. Gehrmann }} {{s-ttl|title = {{nowrap|Member of the Wisconsin Senate}} {{nowrap|from the 12th district}} |years= January 7, 1957{{spaced ndash}}January 3, 1983 }} {{s-aft|after = Lloyd H. Kincaid }} {{s-end}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Krueger, Clifford}} Category:Politicians from Madison, Wisconsin Category:People from Merrill, Wisconsin Category:American circus performers Category:Businesspeople from Madison, Wisconsin Category:Wisconsin city council members Category:Republican Party Wisconsin state senators Category:1918 births Category:1988 deaths Category:20th-century American businesspeople Category:Deaths from hepatitis in the United States Category:Wisconsin Progressives (1924) Category:20th-century members of the Wisconsin Legislature