It’s less than a week until Wisconsin voters hit the polls in the recall elections of six Republican state senators. According to polling by Wisconsin’s Democratic Party, Democratic challengers are, for the most part, sitting pretty right now, leading in three races and tied in the rest. Mind you, these are internal polls, so they should taken with a grain of salt.
But in the case of Republican Alberta Darling, a 20-year veteran of the Wisconsin state senate, you don’t need polls to know she’s in trouble in her race against Democratic state assemblywoman Sandy Pasch. Darling herself admitted as much on Tuesday. In response to an audience member’s comment “Obviously you think you’re going to win this,” Darling said, “I’m not sure. It’s going to be about turnout.” From a long-time member of the Wisconsin GOP and a lock to win her recall mere months ago, that’s a striking admission.
Here’s the video, from the state Democratic Party:
Now, since the clip is short, we don’t know what Darling said after this. According to polling data, Darling has some cause to worry: One poll released in mid-July by the Democratic Party showed Pasch ahead of Darling by 1 percentage point, while a Public Policy Polling survey commissioned by the liberal Daily Kos put Darling up by 5 points. Even then, it’s a sign of the shifting political headwinds in Wisconsin that the Republican state senator considered by Democrats to be the least likely to lose her recall election is now conceding that she may be unseated.
