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

Thousands gather for People’s March on Washington

Protesters gather in Franklin Park on Jan. 18, 2025.

(Micah Sandy/MNS)

Thousands gather for People’s March on Washington

The Fulcrum is proud to partner with Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications in amplifying the work of young journalists.

This collaborative coverage features the People’s March, held on January 18, 2025, an event protesting Donald Trump's policies on issues such as reproductive rights, climate change, and immigration.

Keep ReadingShow less
The Power of Outrage and Keeping Everyone Guessing

Question marks on a stack of small blocks.

Getty Images / Sakchai Vongsasiripat

The Power of Outrage and Keeping Everyone Guessing

Donald Trump loves to keep us guessing. This is exactly what we’re all doing as his second term in the White House begins. It’s one way he controls the narrative.

Trump’s off the cuff, unfiltered, controversial statements infuriate opponents and delight his supporters. The rest of us are left trying to figure out the difference between the shenanigans and when he’s actually serious.

Keep ReadingShow less
To help heal divides, we must cut “the media” some slack

Newspaper headline cuttings.

Getty Images / Sean Gladwell

To help heal divides, we must cut “the media” some slack

A few days ago, Donald Trump was inaugurated. In his second term, just as in his first, he’ll likely spark passionate disagreements about news media: what is “fake news” and what isn’t, which media sources should be trusted and which should be doubted.

We know we have a media distrust problem. Recently it hit an all-time low: the percentage of Americans with "not very much" trust in the media has risen from 27% in 2020 to 33% in 2024.

Keep ReadingShow less