but she ought to win that race by a substantial margin. if she doesn t, then you re right, this night could be a disappointing one. now, we have to label two hopefuls in this race. it would be the 8th district in suburban milwaukee, alberta darling, who was a close associate of the governor, and sandy pasch. i mean a boatload of money has been spent on this race right here. over $8 million in favor of the incumbent. this is a hopeful tonight. what i m going to tell you is this race could turn out, when all the numbers are added up, as the most expensive legislative race in american history. not wisconsin but the country. and so huge money s gone in there. and that is the most complicated district because it s actually a district where you have billionaires and people who live in public housing. so precinct by precinct we re going to watch that one through the night. the other hopeful victory for the democrats to be the swing, the third one, the seat to get that they re counting o
now. your thoughts on that. i m actually rather excited. my last check i had not received a call from the milwaukee election commission. there are ten wards there, about 10,000 votes are there. although we don t expect 10,000 people to turn out. the kind of numbers that we ve seen there is really encouraging. in one ward 56 people voted in the last supreme court race, and last i knew 1,002 people voted. this, the heavy turnout in this district, you think is favoring the democrats? i definitely do. as a matter of fact, the numbers you just reported, on behalf of pasch, when you don t have the milwaukee numbers in on top of that i think it will allow her to do exactly what you started to say. maybe it was a freudian slip. leave alberta darling in the dust. lena, what can you tell us about sandy pasch? you know, the first thing i ll tell you is that she s a nurse and she s been very passionate. she did a lot of work that helps with mental health parity and so
this one. he did some robo-calls for nancy nusbaum. and our condolences go out to nancy. she lost her mother on friday. and it has been obviously that event has tempered the intensity in the race. but that is one that cowles is expected to win. that s one the republicans are counting on. absolutely. now, one thing i want to emphasize, ed, is all of these districts are republican districts drawn by the redistricting ten years ago to be won by republicans and that have been consistently won by republicans over the last several decades. so in all of them the republicans should be in good shape. in some, like the cowles district, that really has a lot of republican turf in it. so that s a tall order. others like the jen schilling district over in lacrosse, that s one that has been trending democratic and should go. and the other republican that is expected to win tonight by the oddsmakers, so to speak, would be sheila harsdorf in the 10th district in hudson, wisconsin.
welcome back to the ed show. as our coverage continues of the recall elections here in madison, wisconsin. and in the six districts throughout the state two of the six have been called for the republicans and joining us now is john nichols, washington correspondent of the nation magazine. john, great to have you back. you ve been giving us some great insight through all of this. what we are seeing right now is sandy pasch in the 8th district, suburban milwaukee, leading alberta darling. this is labeled as a democratic hopeful. how do you read this one? well, i m a little surprised here because sandy pasch started out weak and then as some of these numbers have come in she has opened up and kept that lead going. now, that is a complex district, though, ed, because in that district it s so divided.
where we stand. we are told now that randy hopper and jessica king are virtually tied in the 18th district. that is one that the democrats are hoping to win big-time. also, jennifer shilling leads dan kapanke in the 32nd district. so as it stands right now, the republicans have won two of the races that they were expected to win and the democrats are either tied or slightly leading in the two races that they are very hopeful to win in this. and of course we are also told sandy pasch is leading alberta darling, but still a lot of votes have not been counted in that district. joining us now is jim palmer, who is the executive director of the wisconsin professional police organization. good to have you with us. and i m introducing you tonight to three people that have been with us on this wisconsin ride and been through all of this. that s exactly right.