We bring you today’s Key Reads, which feature an international flair as well as predictable stalemates in Madison.
Futbol con queso?
It seems more and more likely that the Green Bay Packers will open the season in Brazil, with a regular season game against the Philadelphia Eagles.
Packers could open 2024 season with game in Brazil, Murphy expects decision ‘pretty soon’ | WLUK
Nearly two years after crossing the pond and playing their first regular season game abroad, could the Packers find themselves playing outside the United States again in 2024?
NFL games in England and Germany have been a growing trend in recent years, though it hasn’t been a common one for the green and gold. Green Bay has only played one international match, with that game coming in London against the New York Giants in 2022.
However, it appears the team is optimistic about the idea of making history by potentially playing the first ever NFL game in South America this upcoming season.
While speaking with reporters Tuesday, Packers President and CEO Mark Murphy welcomed the idea of opening up the 2024 season in São Paulo, Brazil. It’s not the capital, but it is the largest city by population in the largest country in South America.
The state’s economic outlook is taking a hit by one measure.
Wisconsin ranks 21st in new economic outlook rankings | The Center Square
Wisconsin ranks 21st in the new economic outlook rankings from the American Legislative Exchange Council.
The annual rankings from ALEC – an organization favoring limited government, free markets and federalism – rank states on 15 state policy categories including gross domestic product, domestic migration and non-farm payroll employment.
Wisconsin ranked 30th in the backward-looking economic performance metric.
Wisconsin earned top rankings for lack of estate/inheritance tax, $7.25 state minimum wage using the federal mark and for being a right-to-work state.
The ranking is several spots below the No. 17 ranking in 2023 after being 14th in 2022, 15th in 2021, 12th in 2020 and 17th in 2019.
Get ready for more campaign spending on state legislative races than we’ve ever seen.
Out of state group vows to spend a million dollars to elect Democrats to the Wisconsin State Assembly | New York Times
The States Project, a deep-pocketed outside group focused exclusively on state legislatures, is adding the Wisconsin State Assembly to its 2024 plans, a clear sign that Democrats are growing bullish on an opportunity to flip the chamber after the State Supreme Court ordered new maps to be drawn this year.
The organization said that it would include Wisconsin in its eight-figure 2024 budget and spend an additional $1 million there. (The group has not yet completed its 2024 total spending plans.) State legislative races, which play out in smaller districts than contests for Congress do, are often much less expensive than federal races. Large donations in these elections can have a significant impact.
National Democrats have zeroed in on the Wisconsin Legislature. The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, the state legislative arm of the Democratic National Committee, has already donated $24,000 directly to the party’s caucus in each chamber of the Legislature, the maximum legally allowed, and it has added Wisconsin to its national $60 million budget. Forward Majority, another outside group focused on state legislatures, plans to spend heavily in the state after spending more than $1 million in 2018.
The deluge of cash and attention into the Wisconsin Legislature presages a possible shift in the state’s politics. Dominated by extreme partisan gerrymanders for more than 13 years, both chambers of the Legislature have remained solidly in Republican control, even as Democrats have won statewide races for governor, Senate and the presidency in multiple elections.
Another day, another veto, more grandstanding and finger pointing.
Evers vetoes Republican PFAS bill as stalemate continues | WPR
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers has vetoed a Republican plan that would have provided grants to local governments and landowners to address PFAS contamination, citing limits the bill would have placed on regulators’ authority to address the chemicals.
At the same time, Evers called for a special meeting of the Legislature’s Republican-led budget committee next week in a last-ditch effort to reach consensus with GOP lawmakers to address the harmful chemicals. The governor has only used that authority once before to prompt the committee to address funding for homelessness in 2019…
The Republican co-chairs of the Legislature’s finance committee, Sen. Howard Marklein and Rep. Mark Born, said in a statement that Evers is playing politics.
“As was the case four years ago, the Governor has no authority to call the committee into a meeting,” the co-chairs wrote. “According the nonpartisan Legislative Reference Bureau, ‘The governor may call a meeting of JCF but may not require the JCF cochairpersons to convene any meeting, require JCF to consider any matter, or compel any member to attend that meeting.’”
So, Brazil…The international travel could mess up players’ body clocks, but at least such a move would be for the league opener, and not some mid-season stunt. We understand the league’s desire to showcase the best franchise in history on the world stage. It’s going to be an exciting season for the green and gold.
The story on the outside spending on State Assembly races is one we will continue to monitor. It could change the way legislative races are conducted here, forever.
That’s it for today’s key reads. We’re back at it tomorrow.
