Republicans came out on top in Wisconsin's special recall election yesterday in a Democratic effort to take control of the state senate, MSNBC reports:
Most at risk as voting started Tuesday appeared to be three Republicans, Alberta Darling, Randy Hopper and Dan Kapanke, all of whom had barely won their races in 2008.
Kapanke and Hopper lost, but Darling won with 54 percent with most of the precincts counted, partly due to her outperforming her 2008 majority in heavily Republican Waukesha County. In 2008, Darling had won her district by a mere 1,007 out of more than 99,000 votes cast. Her district went narrowly for Barack Obama in 2008.
Three other Republican lawmakers also survived the Democratic recall effort: Sen. Robert Cowles, Sen. Sheila Harsdorf and Sen. Luther Olsen. With the split in Wisconsin's Senate at 19 Republicans and 14 Democrats as the day began, a turnover of three would have changed party control.
Democrats are unswayed, however, in their desire to recall Governor Scott Walker (pictured), the Capital Times reports:
When asked if it was possible to recall the governor even if Democrats were unable to win back the Senate, [Karl] Markgraf, a construction worker from a union family, says "absolutely."
Walker is 540,208, or one-quarter of the roughly 2.2 million votes cast in the last gubernatorial race.
"Come January, he's doomed," Markgraf says.
