GLENDALE, Wis. -- During her son's graduation in May from Bowdoin College, Sandy Pasch listened as filmmaker Mira Nair urged students to get involved in society, citing the impact of citizen uprisings around the world.
"And then she gave as examples what's happening in Libya, in Egypt and Wisconsin," Pasch recounted.
"I thought, 'Wow. I don't know that everyone sees us in the same light as Egypt and Libya, but there's something happening here,' " she said. "There's something happening, and the common refrain I hear is that people want to take their state back."
Pasch, 57, who for three years has represented Milwaukee's northern suburbs in the state Assembly, is among six Democrats challenging Republican state senators in special recall elections today.
The elections are the latest fallout from controversial moves by the Republican-controlled Legislature and GOP Gov. Scott Walker to eliminate most collective-bargaining rights for public employees.
Last month, a Democratic incumbent survived a recall. Today, the incumbent Republicans need to win at least four of the six contests to prevent Democrats from retaking a majority in the Senate and reversing the outcome of last fall's elections, which gave the GOP control of state government.
If Democrats regain the Senate, it would set up a possible attempt next year to recall Walker, who by law cannot be challenged until he has spent a year in office.
The campaigns have become test battles for 2012's presidential and congressional elections, and special interest, business, labor and political groups are contributing millions of dollars.
"The stakes are high," said state Sen. Alberta Darling, 67, of River Hills, the Republican Pasch is facing. "This is about the 2012 election. It is about Obama. And most of all, it is about the future of our country. Are we going to grow in the United States?....Are we going to have freedom of opportunity? Or are we going to have a socialistic state?"
More than 50 groups are actively supporting candidates in the recall elections, including national organizations such as the Howard Dean-founded Democracy for America and the AFL-CIO for the Democrats, and Americans for Prosperity and the Club for Growth on the Republican side.
Mike McCabe, executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, a nonpartisan campaign finance group, said interest groups and candidates have spent more than $30 million, including groups that don't have to disclose their donors.
