the senator is leading by 2% of the vote over challenger jessica king. this was expected to be a win for the democrats. but those are the numbers. hopper in with 22,788. and jessica king in at 22,212. 51% to 49%. and we ve also got a very interesting race. in the 8th district, suburban milwaukee, alberta darling is trailing at this hour to challenger representative sandy pasch by 8% of the vote. pasch in with 12,032 votes at 56%. and roberta darling in with that number you that saw on the screen there, with 44% of the votes. so it s still a very good chance for the democrats to get three. but the surprise here is the showing of randy hopper, the state senator.
you have very democratic precincts, very republican. so as each new one comes in it s going to bump it one way or the other. but my sense here now is that pasch is doing better than we thought she would be at this point and we ve got a possibility there. a real possibility. all right. senator randy hopper and jessica king. this one obviously very close. but it is one that the democrats need. they definitely need it. jess king lst200 votes the last 163, i believe it was. i believe you remember it well, my friend. yeah. so they ve been down this road before. yeah. and there you see the numbers. it s 50-50. and king is up with 7,464 votes to hopper s 7,368 votes. hopper coming under some tremendous criticism personally. but he has worked very hard. in fact, he made the comment that he has lost ten pounds in the last couple of weeks, he s worked so hard here. but jessica king, what is her
challenger sandy pasch is still too close to call at this hour. right now with 80% of precincts reporting sandy pasch, the democratic challenger, with 47% of the vote, and the incumbent republican senator alberta darling with 53% of the vote. it s all down to district 8. ed schultz is in madison, wisconsin right now, and he joins us live. ed, my friend, tell me how you are feeling and what the mood is like right now in madison about this outstanding race in district 8. well, there is an air of disappointment here, rachel. there s no question about it. but looking at the glass half full, the democrats here are saying, hey, we picked up two seats, which was going to be a heavy lift to start with. these are all republican districts. they won two counties, two districts that they thought they were going to win. and that is district 18 and district 32, where they defeated randy hopper, defeated dan kapanke. but as you ve been reporting, now alberta darling has pulled out in front. and i m
when democrats have a backbone and stand strong like the wisconsin 14 did, the grassroots will come out, thousands of people will knock on doors, and that s exactly what democrats need. so this is a big political proposition that we are proving here tonight. we continue to follow district 8. sandy pasch is leading alberta darling. and also in district 18. s too close to call..that so two democrats are still in the hunt. three republicans have been declared the winners tonight. the last word with lawrence o donnell continues here on msnbc. i m ed schultz reporting live from madison, wisconsin. stay with us. so much more coming up.
but the boots on the ground, the organization, the social networking, the due diligence of the democrats have kept sandy pasch within striking distance, and with 67% of the vote she leads right now with just over 23,000 votes to 21,000 votes. and john nichols, the absentee vote obviously is going to be very important. but we really don t know exactly what the full number is on the absentee ballots. we don t. but can you imagine, this ed? after all of this. after all of this we might come down to a contested unsettled result in one race. and just for our viewers, again, what is the state law for a recount, whether it be a general election or a recall? same thing. if it s under half a percent, the state pays for the recount, and it s an official recount done by the local officials. if it s over half a percent, then the candidate has to pay. that won t frankly be a problem. but the fact is what we re really interested in now is getting all these votes reported and finding out just h