Voters take to the polls as Wisconsin holds the nation's largest ever recall elections in River Hills
Voters take to the polls as Wisconsin holds the nation's largest ever recall elections in River Hills August 9, 2011. Six state Republicans and two state Democratic senators face recall elections that were sparked by a controversial bill passed by Wisconsin Republican Governor, Scott Walker. The bill limits the powers of public unions in an attempt to balance the state's budget. Reuters

Senators Jim Holperin and Robert Wirch kept their Senate seats in Wisconsin's recall election on Tuesday.

Holperin defeated Tea Party challenger Kim Simac and Wirch beat Republican lawyer Jonathan Steitz, Reuters reported Wednesday.

"We need to get back to work," Holperin told POLITICO after giving a victory speech. "I had to put some stuff aside in order to conduct these recalls, as did many of my colleagues. So a lot of us are just looking forward to getting back to work. We've got a lot of issues to deal with in the Legislature."

The recall elections came after controversy over a collective bargaining bill that prompted both Republican and Democrat lawmakers to flee the state earlier this year.

Even with the victories, Democrats still failed to hold the majority of seats.

"This was a political Rorschach test in that anyone can read anything into the result," Mordecai Lee, a professor the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, told Reuters. "Politically, it was a draw."

Recall