Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

Put the racing sausages on ice, Wisconsin GOP demands

Racing Sausages

The Wisconsin Republican Party is warning that having the Milwaukee Brewers' famous racing sausages in Miller Park while people are voting would violate state election law.

Jeffrey Phelps/Getty Images

The Republican Party is telling the Wisconsin Election Commission and the Milwaukee Brewers that election law would be violated by the mere presence of the baseball team's popular racing sausages when people vote in the stadium.

And, no, it wasn't a joke meant to inject a little levity into the intense debate about election integrity and voter fraud.


The legalistic letter was sent Tuesday by the state GOP chairman, Andrew Hitt. He sent a similar warning to the Milwaukee Bucks about Bango, the NBA franchise's mascot.

Littered with references to specific provisions of state law and precedent-setting court cases, the letters seek to find out what is being planned for Miller Park and Fiserv Forum when they are used as voting sites from Oct. 20 to Nov. 1.

"We want to ensure that no one engages in electioneering or other improper activities at those sites," the letter states. (You see, there are real people inside those goofy and outsized costumes.)

Hitt said he became concerned because a registration drive at Miller Park last week, on National Voter Registration Day, "prominently featured the Brewers Racing Sausages."

To be precise, they are actually the Johnsonville Famous Racing Sausages. Which is trademarked, by the way. And for those who don't know, five oversized costumed characters — representing bratwurst, hot dog, polish, Italian and chorizo — race around the stadium before the bottom of the sixth inning at the Brewers' home games.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

While baseball's efforts to promote civil engagement are "commendable," Hitt wrote, having the sausages on hand while voters are marking their ballots would violate the Wisconsin law banning "any activity which is intended to influence voting at an election."

The prohibition, the GOP argues, does not just cover the promotion of candidates. It also guards against any encouragement of the very act of voting.

Neither team has announced plans to put Bango and the racing sausages to work enticing people to get out and vote in one of the year's most important tossup states

But the state GOP asked to be notified if any celebrities are going to be at the arena or ballpark when they are being used as polling places.

Who knows: Maybe they want to make sure to bring condiments.

Read More

The Evolving Social Contract: From Common Good to Contemporary Practice

An illustration of hands putting together a puzzle.

Getty Images, cienpies

The Evolving Social Contract: From Common Good to Contemporary Practice

The concept of the common good in American society has undergone a remarkable transformation since the nation's founding. What began as a clear, if contested, vision of collective welfare has splintered into something far more complex and individualistic. This shift reflects changing times and a fundamental reimagining of what we owe each other as citizens and human beings.

The nation’s progenitors wrestled with this very question. They drew heavily from Enlightenment thinkers like John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who saw the social contract as a sacred covenant between citizens and their government. But they also pulled from deeper wells—the Puritan concept of the covenant community, the classical Republican tradition of civic virtue, and the Christian ideal of serving one's neighbor. These threads wove into something uniquely American: a vision of the common good that balances individual liberty with collective responsibility.

Keep ReadingShow less
We’ve Collectively Created the Federal Education Collapse

Students in a classroom.

Getty Images, Maskot

We’ve Collectively Created the Federal Education Collapse

“If we make money the object of man-training, we shall develop money-makers but not necessarily men.” - W.E.B. Du Bois

The current state of public education has many confused, anxious, and even fearful. Depending on the day, I feel any combination of the above, among other less-than-ideal adjectives. Simply, the future is uncertain. Schools are simultaneously cutting budgets and trying to remain relevant, all during an increasingly tense political climate.

Keep ReadingShow less
Recent Republican policies and proposals limiting legal immigration and legal immigrants' benefits and rights

An oversized gavel surrounded by people.

Getty Images, J Studios

Recent Republican policies and proposals limiting legal immigration and legal immigrants' benefits and rights

In a recent post we quoted a journalist describing the Republican Party as anti-immigration. Many of our readers wrote back angrily to say that the Republican party is only opposed to immigrants who are present illegally.

But that's not true. And we're not shy of telling it like it is.

Keep ReadingShow less
The Importance of Respecting Court Orders
brown wooden chess piece on brown book

The Importance of Respecting Court Orders

The most important question in American politics today is whether Donald Trump will respect court orders. Judges have repeatedly ruled against his administration.

But will he listen?

Keep ReadingShow less