☀️ Good morning!

You could call this issue a Convention Special since so many people who regularly follow politics in our state are either in Wisconsin Dells or are at least monitoring the events at this weekend’s Democratic Party convention.

It’s an “off year,” but there’s one big piece of business on the convention agenda that happens today when delegates choose a new state party chair to succeed Ben Wikler.

There’s another question lingering out there, one that won’t be answered for a few weeks yet: Will Gov. Tony Evers seek a third term? It would be fair to say that an opinion column last week officially got the ball rolling on speculation about whether or not the governor should run or retire. We’ll get into it in this issue.

💲 BUT FIRST – We’re having our quarterly pledge drive. UpNorthNews does what it does without a paywall. And we’ll never have one. But it does mean we have to ask you every so often if you’ll consider what a subscription to us would be worth, if we had ’em. We hope we’re worthy of your support and that you’ll head over to this website to make an online donation. Or, to use the OG approach to donating, send an old-school paper check to PO Box 27, Chippewa Falls, WI 54729. Please make the check out to our parent company, Courier Newsroom. Thank you!

⏮️ Last Week: How do you feel about city and county governance when it comes to elected officials vs. hired professional managers? The answer: evenly divided! By only a single vote, the option for elected mayors and county executives topped the hiring of professional city managers and county administrators.

📝 Our “spotlight comment” will come from a reader named Herb, who prefers elected leaders but was not shy about expressing his dissatisfaction with some of the politicians chosen by voters. “I think it is the great privilege of our form of government to be able to vote for our leaders. Therefore I want whenever possible to defend that means of choosing who should lead us.”

For this week’s question, read on…

(FILE-AP Photo/Todd Richmond)

Say this about Dan Shafer, he knows a thing or two about discombobulation.

Shafer, a Milwaukee-based political journalist creator of The Recombobulation Area, and political editor for Civic Media, has written many columns over the years—perhaps none before have prompted such passionate perspectives as his latest column, “Pass the Torch: Tony Evers should not run for a third term as governor.”

“Tony Evers has been a very good governor for the state of Wisconsin,” Shafer writes, making it clear he believes the governor has been instrumental in leading “Wisconsin’s crawl back from the disastrous Scott Walker years, and a bulwark against the heavily gerrymandered hard-right Republican-controlled legislature.”

But. (There’s always a but with a column like this!)

Shafer goes on to say, “he’d be putting a whole lot more than his own legacy at risk by failing to recognize the long-term implications of not passing the torch to the next generation of leaders, and the short-term implications of running when you might be too old for the office.”

Next came the usual rehashing of Biden 2024. We don’t have space for that this morning.

“Truthfully, though,” Shafer writes, “we should not be expecting so many of our elected officials to serve into their late 70s, or beyond. Trump is too old to be president, too. It should not be so difficult for politicians to retire at a more reasonable age.”

This weekend’s convention chatter certainly centered on this point: Did Shafer do Democrats a favor by forcing a conversation they’d been avoiding? Former Evers staffer Melissa Baldauff doesn’t think so.

“This is 1) the wrong take; and 2) a gift to Republicans who will do everything in their power to sow division among Dems. We need to be united right now, and throwing our governor—the most popular and trusted elected official in the state since he took office, and probably Wisconsin Dems’ most prolific fundraiser—under the bus just isn’t it.”

Here’s where you come in.

Where do you stand on Gov. Evers running in 2026?

👍🏻Run! Whether it’s because of his record or his ability to appeal to moderate voters when challenged by a Trumpy conservative, Evers is the right candidate to keep the governor’s post in responsible hands.

👎🏻 Retire. Whatever his record, whatever his age, this question is about whether Evers is the right candidate to keep hold of the governor’s office—and in this case, he wouldn’t win.

To answer this week’s question or to suggest a different answer, hit reply or email me directly at pat@couriernewsroom.com

Watch my commentary on how Republicans are sputtering and stammering about how their bloated boondoggle of a budget bill doesn’t actually cut Medicaid benefits to deserving Americans—when it actually does. (Correction: I say $600 million when I meant to say the Trump plan cuts Medicaid $600 billion over 10 years, but you’ll get my larger point.) 

Tune in Monday to “Mornings with Pat Kreitlow” as we sum up the weekend’s protests, reaction to Trump’s indulgent military parade, and more. We’ll also be joined by author Laura Bird with recommendations on memoirs to put on your summer reading list.

Catch our show weekdays from 6-9 a.m. on our Facebook and YouTube pages as well as stations across Wisconsin thanks to our friends at Civic Media. If you can’t listen live, listen on-demand as a podcast by subscribing on Spotify.

📱 And stay up to date all day with all of our team’s work through our social media feeds, including Instagram and TikTok.

1️⃣ – Taylor’s Talking – We interviewed Judge Chris Taylor on Friday’s radio show about her campaign for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. If no other candidates enter the April 2026 race, Taylor would be working to unseat conservative Justice Rebecca Bradley, who’s expected to run for another 10-year term.

Taylor is a former state Assembly representative (2013-2020) and previously worked as public policy director for Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin.

“My values are reflected in the things I worked on when I was in the Legislature,” Taylor said, “from protecting access to abortion and reproductive health care to making sure our water was safe, addressing lead poisoning in children, and also making sure our workers are treated fairly and get an actual slice of the pie that they make and not just crumbs.”

Taylor has been endorsed by all four of the court’s liberal justices (including Justice-elect Susan Crawford), support she sees as affirmation of her ability to work together with people in order to properly interpret the law—something she does not see in Bradley “who does not seem interested in collaborating with people who do not think exactly like she does—as she indicated on the night of Justice-elect Crawford’s election.”

2️⃣ – Battling Bribery – The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign and the progressive law group Forward Wisconsin have filed a lawsuit against Elon Musk and two companies he funds, in an effort to end any further attempts at what is turning elections in the state into “an open auction, where votes go to the preferred candidates of the highest bidders.”

Musk, the world’s wealthiest person, spent more than $20 million in April’s state Supreme Court race, but his efforts failed to help Brad Schimel, who lost to Justice-elect Susan Crawford. Musk gave out three $1 million checks to Wisconsinites and offered $100 payments to voters who signed a petition he claimed was not directly related to buying votes for Schimel.

3️⃣ – Cutting Medicaid, Making Up Medals – Congressman Derrick Van Orden has found a new way to spend federal resources: creating a military medal for service along the border with Mexico. Van Orden’s Border Operations Service Medal Act is designed for servicemembers “who have defended the southern border under President Trump’s 2025 national emergency declaration.”

According to President Trump’s declarations, Americans are currently living under eight national emergencies.

🏁 Thanks for reading today’s update.

Have a great week.

You already know UpNorthNews goes beyond politics. And yes, that definitely includes sports. Our new sports newsletter has grown from a monthly to a weekly edition.

It’s not X’s and O’s. It’s a true collection of “weekly wins” — the moments that made us smile on and off the field, the court, the ice. Christina Lorey gives you a deeper dive into the backstories of local athletes, coaches, historic moments, and the teams you love!

Get our weekly sports newsletter by clicking below.