With Hansen recall win, will momentum continue for Dems?

Democrat Dave Hansen wins in landslide, defending his seat against recall challenger VanderLeest

In the first of nine recall elections the state has to experience between now and August 9, Democratic incumbent Dave Hansen has defeated Republican challenger David VanderLeest. At this time, with 76 percent of the precincts reported, it seems Hansen has walloped VanderLeest by a margin of 2-to-1.

With Hansen's victory comes less pressure for Democrats overall to win every single recall contest out there. Those that are challenging Republican incumbents in recalls will need to flip at most five of the six Republican seats in order to take back the State Senate. That number could decrease again to four or three, depending on whether other Democratic incumbent senators are able to defend their own seats in the remaining two elections set up against Sens. Bob Wirch and Jim Holperin.

Of course, Democrats will still try to defend every seat they already have and gain as many of the six seats they are challenging. Still, every victory by Democrats takes them one step closer towards flipping the Senate, allowing a check on Gov. Scott Walker's boldly conservative agenda.

Will the momentum continue? It'd be nice of me to say to you tonight that, yes, Democrats will take this victory and run with it in all eight of the remaining contests. But the facts are that each race is uniquely different -- Hansen's challenger in this race wasn't exactly the most stellar of opponents, for instance, while other races are much closer.

Momentum for Democrats is certainly gaining (as is the case of Democratic recall candidate Sandy Pasch, who is now running even with Republican incumbent Alberta Darling), but the certainty of whether Hansen's victory tonight is indicative of the state overall is just too far unknown at this point in time. The fight will need to continue, as neither side is going to let up in light of tonight's results.

Still, tonight's victory is one worth celebrating. The count is officially 1-0 in favor of Democrats -- scratch that: it's 1-0 in favor of returning sanity to our state legislature, providing much needed balance in our government.