10:22 PM: We’re almost 90 minutes into the counting. And the picture is starting to get clearer. We have two Republican incumbents who have clearly held on — Cowles and Harsdorf, though the later hasn’t been called yet. Another Republican, Olsen, has a 10 pt margin with 71% of the vote in. That’s looking fairly solid in the GOP column, but far from a sure thing. After that you have three races where the Dems are either ahead or very close. But these all have very few or relatively few precincts reporting. Big picture is that Dems can still get the 3 seats but they need everything to fall their way. No margin for error. Latest results here.
10:32 PM: Dems now tied or ahead in three races. But with very lower totals reporting in 2 of the 3.
10:36 PM: Unless returns speed up in districts 8 and 18 this could be a pretty long evening.
10:39 PM: We must be close to seeing a call for Republican Olsen in district 14, 8 point spread with 86% reporting.
10:44 PM: Olsen (R) now up by 8 points with 94% in. A bit surprised we haven’t seen a call there yet. Should happen momentarily.
10: 49 PM: Have an unconfirmed report that the reason for the odd lack of a call in the Olsen race is that a lot of the remaining vote is in the challengers hometown. That’s a helluva deficit to make up. But the folks at AP are understandably reluctant to call it.
