It’s midnight in Wisconsin. Polls have closed and the results are still being tallied but most of the projected winners have been called. Republicans have retained three of their seats, Democrats have won two (Randy Hopper and Dan Kapanke), and the Alberta Darling / Sandy Pasch race in district eight is too close to call (although Darling is doing victory laps already). This appears to be the deciding race on the balance of power in the Senate.
(12:45. AP calls the race for Darling. Pasch not expected to make a comment until tomorrow)
But if the balance is tipped in the favour of Democrats, what does that really mean? It won’t do anything to undo the damage that Governor Scott Walker has already done but it will give Democrats the ability to stop any further damage. That may not mean much either since Walker; perhaps sensing the success of the recall efforts, has been shoveling as much of his legislative agenda into the engine as possible before today.
Democrats must also retain their two recall races on the 16th for this to be considered anything close to a victory. At least one of those races appears to be close.
Some voting hijinks have been alleged in the district where the controversial vote count problems occurred in the Supreme Court Justice race several months ago.
