Swing City: Wauwatosa Perfectly Purple in Tuesday's Primary

If Tuesday's two-way primary was in any way a test of where Wauwatosa might fall in the June 5 statewide recall election, the answer was: smack dab in the middle.

With a solid turnout of 45 percent and a total of 14,299 ballots cast, votes for Democratic and Republican candidates were a split hair apart.

• Read a replay of our lively from Tuesday.

In the primary for the governor's office, 7,061 votes, or 49.5 percent, went to Republicans and to one "fake" Democrat in the race, while 7,204, or 50.5 percent, went to real Democrats. A total of 14,265 votes were cast for that office.

The lion's share of Republican votes and most gained by any candidate was the 6,910 total cast for Gov. Scott Walker. Another 125 Republican votes went to Arthur Kohl-Riggs, there were five write-ins, and 21 votes went to Gladys Huber, the Republican running on the Democratic ticket.

On the Democratic side, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett polled 5,540 votes to former Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk's 1,435. Also-ran candidates Kathleen Vinehout and Doug La Follette drew 116 and 97 votes, respectively, and there were 16 write-ins.

Assuming all Democratic voters will now back Barrett rather than turning to Walker, if turnout were exactly the same in the looming recall, Wauwatosa would go against the governor by the slimmest of margins.

Of course, in this election, where everything seems to be a little different than any other election, it is impossible to say whether all votes were entirely sincere.

• In some circles, Republicans were encouraged to vote on the Democratic side for Falk, figuring her to be more likely than Barrett to lose to Walker in June. It can't be determined whether any, or very many, did.
• A number of voters , but their ballots were rejected. No one but they can say what they were trying to do or who they ended up voting for.
• In the Democratic primary for lieutenant governor — Republican Rebecca Kleefisch was unopposed — "fake" Democrat Isaac Weix drew 2,312 votes. However, it can't be said whether any of those voters also cast spoiler votes in the governor's race.

Only 8,029 total votes were cast in the lieutenant governor's race, with 6,270 people deciding not to make a choice on that side — presumably Republicans not interested in voting for anyone on the Democratic side, real or fake.

Geographically, Democrats outpolled Republicans in Wauwatosa's easternmost 1st, 4th and 5th wards, with the 5th Ward posting the widest margins.

The 3rd, 7th and 8th wards in the west went to the Republicans, while the central 2nd and 6th wards were nearly even.