At least the political ads are done

I'm Bill Glauber and this is the Daily Briefing newsletter by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Sign up here to get it sent to your inbox each morning.

Enjoy this "second summer" Thursday as temperatures reach the 70's during the day before a night-time plunge. And then, just like that, we'll be in "real" November.

One more look at Tuesday's election

OK, I know. Enough with politics. We endured the campaign and all the ads. We voted, or at least a lot of us did. We watched the results.

Can't we just get back to living our lives?

Hmm, in case you haven't noticed, this is Wisconsin and we do politics 24/7.

Why, the 2024 campaign is right around the corner.

So before we bid a not-so-fond farewell to the 2022 midterm elections, and get prepared for gridlock in Madison and probably the same in Washington, D.C., let's try to digest what exactly happened around here.

Craig Gilbert digs into the data on Wisconsin's split-decision election that saw Democratic Gov. Tony Evers and Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson win their races.

The bottom line, according to Gilbert:

Republicans continued to lose ground in the populous metro areas of Madison and Milwaukee.

And Democrats continued to slip in the state’s more rural northern and western halves.

The 2022 election saw a widening of the “density divide” as bigger cities and inner suburbs keep getting bluer and exurbs, small towns and the countryside keep getting redder.

It's fascinating stuff, and you can read it here.

Another staple of election coverage is Daniel Bice's winners and losers, always an entertaining treat.

One of the winners is a guy you probably never heard of: Chris LaCivita.

Read Bice's annual list here.

And there are plenty of other election stories

Things got a little frosty at the end of the U.S. Senate race between Johnson and Democrat Mandela Barnes.

A reminder of how Tony Evers defeated Tim Michels for governor.

Not a lot of responsibility left in the Secretary of State's office but the race is too close to call.

Here's what the Wisconsin election results could mean for schools.

Republican Derrick Van Orden is headed to Congress.

Wisconsin Republicans failed to get a supermajority in the Legislature.

Out-of-state landlords remain a concern for Milwaukee neighborhoods

Mike Gousha and John Johnson focus on out-of-state investors who have continued their rapid acquisition of Milwaukee homes.

It's part of new research by Marquette Law School’s Lubar Center for Public Policy Research and Civic Education.

Gousha and Johnson write there's some encouraging news, like what's happening with people like Tommy Kirk, one of nearly 3,000 new homeowners in Milwaukee since 2018:

In the last few years, more local residents bought homes in the city.  Not to rent to someone else, but to live in.  A vote of confidence in Milwaukee’s future.

You can read the full report here.

Fancy cat condos and puppy palaces

And you think you pamper your pets?

Just check out some of these "bespoke dwellings" − a cat castle, a "catio" and a dog house that dates to the 1920s.

"I want my cats to be engaged, happy and safe.  They are my fur babies," said Elizabeth Platz, describing her "catio."

Buffalo chicken tenders return to Culver's

Not that one of my bosses is interested (if you want to know who that person is you might check the credit on the above photo), but Buffalo chicken tenders are returning to Culver's.

Apparently, a lot of people are excited about this.

So, I pass it on.

Or, as the story suggests, "the spicy, breaded pieces of meaty goodness have a Twitter account dedicated to 'em with more than 3,480 followers.

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Bill Glauber can be reached at (414) 224-2526 or bill.glauber@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @BillGlauber.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: How Wisconsin got a split political decision?