Correction and Clarification: August 18, 2011

Yesterday I wrote of the state Senate recall elections in Wisconsin: "So, despite coming up one seat short of taking over the state Senate, Wisconsin Democrats have won four out of five recall elections."

I was specifically referring to the five recall elections Democrats were given the best chances in - the two elections to recall Democrats and the three elections to recall Republicans that Democrats had a realistic shot of winning - when I said that. Winning that fifth seat (the one held by Republican Alberta Darling) would have given Democrats the majority. Of course, there were three other recall elections affecting Republican state senators that Democrats had little or no chance of winning and in fact lost, which I completely failed to mention. Plus, there was another race on July 19 won by a Democrat. So there were nine Wisconsin Senate recall elections against six Republican incumbents and three Democratic incumbents, with the Democrats winning five and the Republicans winning four. My point was that, although the Republicans kept control of the Wisconsin state Senate, the Democrats were competitive by winning all but one of the five races they needed to win to get a simple Senate majority. I am sorry for the misrepresentation of the facts by omitting those other three races the GOP won, and I regret the error.

But just remember this. Republicans lost two Wisconsin Senate seats and Democrats lost none.