Max Raskin

Raskin was born to Jewish parents in rural Latvia and emigrated with his family at the age of nine.[1] He graduated from the Marquette University Law School in 1926 and practiced in Milwaukee as a labor law attorney.[2] Raskin ran unsuccessfully for Milwaukee County District Attorney in 1930.[3] In 1932, he was elected Milwaukee City Attorney as a Socialist, unseating nonpartisan incumbent John M. Niven.[4] After his election, Raskin appointed former judge and Socialist politician William F. Quick as his first assistant and employed Edwin Knappe, a former Socialist state Representative, as an assistant city attorney.[5] As city attorney, Raskin collaborated closely with Mayor Daniel W. Hoan, also a Socialist, and required assistant city attorneys to relinquish any employment in private practice.[6] He was harshly criticized by the conservative Milwaukee Sentinel for "his refusal to prosecute communistic rioters".[7]

Raskin was defeated in his 1936 reelection bid and reentered private practice. In 1937, he was elected as a national committeeman of the Socialist Party of America[8] but, in 1940,[9] he left the party and joined the Wisconsin Progressive Party. In 1944, he became a Democrat.[1] Raskin ran for judicial office in 1949 and 1956 but was twice defeated; in 1963, his political ally Governor John W. Reynolds, Jr., appointed him to the Milwaukee County Circuit Court.[10] Raskin served on the court until 1973 and, following his mandatory retirement at the age of 70, continued to serve the state as a reserve judge. In that capacity, he stepped in as Acting Circuit Court Judge in Waukesha County for Judge William E. Gramling during a lengthy struggle with cancer.[1] He died in 1984 at the age of 81.[1]

Raskin's nephew,[11] Marcus Raskin, was a progressive activist and social critic.