Six fake Democratic candidates put up by the Republican Party to buy time for Republican state senators subject to recalls accomplished that job Tuesday, but none of them did the unexpected and knocked off a real Democrat.

Candidates backed by the Democratic Party won all six Senate primary elections, all but one of them by substantial amounts. They'll all go on to face the Republican incumbents on Aug. 9, in an attempt by Democrats to regain control of the state Senate and put the brakes on Gov. Scott Walker's agenda.

That the primaries were held at all is a function of the twists and turns of political strategy played out in recent months as the state broke into warring camps over Walker's attempt to restrict collective bargaining for public employees.

The Republican Party forced the primaries to give its six senators facing recall another four weeks before facing a Democratic challenger, in order to allow them to take their case to the voters and argue that their work on the budget was good for the state.

The winners Tuesday:

Former Brown County Executive Nancy Nusbaum of De Pere defeated Otto Junkermann of Allouez, a one-time Republican state representative and past supporter of Sen. Rob Cowles (R-Allouez).

Rep. Sandy Pasch (D-Whitefish Bay) easily defeated Gladys Huber, a Republican Party stalwart from Mequon. Pasch will face Sen. Alberta Darling (R-River Hills).

Shelly Moore, a teacher and official in the state teachers union from River Falls, defeated Isaac Weix of Menomonie, a hardware store owner and former failed candidate in Republican Party primaries for state Assembly. She'll face Sen. Sheila Harsdorf (R-River Falls) in the general election. Weix did the best of all the Republican-backed candidates.

Rep. Fred Clark (D-Baraboo) defeated Republican Rol Church of Wautoma for the right to face Sen. Luther Olsen (R-Ripon).

Jessica King, former deputy mayor of Oshkosh, defeated John Buckstaff of Oshkosh for the right to face Sen. Randy Hopper (R-Fond du Lac).

Rep. Jennifer Shilling (D-La Crosse) defeated James D. Smith, a hospital technician in La Crosse, for the right to face Sen. Dan Kapanke (R-La Crosse).

State Republican Party officials maintained in the weeks leading up to the primaries that their only purpose in mounting the protest Democrats was to buy time for their candidates.

But there was some activity in the final week to turn out voters for those candidates.

One of the most prominent efforts was in Harsdorf's 10th Senate District, where Jesse Garza, chairman of the St. Croix County Republican Party, sent out an email urging recipients to vote Tuesday, telling them a vote for Weix was the same as a vote for Harsdorf.

Moore was probably the Democrat most vulnerable to this tactic, as she didn't have the name recognition the other Democrats did - all of them having run for or held a major office in their districts.

Calls urging votes for the fake Democrats were reported in three other Senate districts last week - Olsen's, Hopper's and Kapanke's - with a piece of literature sent out in Hopper's. It said voting for protest Democrat Buckstaff over King was a way to express support for Walker.

The primaries set up major faceoffs in the six districts, with national attention on the races, and massive amounts of money and national advertising flowing into the state.

The recalls against the Republicans were launched last March over their backing of Walker's collective bargaining measure.

Democrats call the move an attack on the middle class. Republicans say it was necessary to balance the state's budget, which they accomplished last month.

Political heat will rise

With the final election less than a month away, the heat of that debate is likely to pick up fast.

Already the conservative Club for Growth and a liberal coalition called We Are Wisconsin, supported by contributions from national unions, are active in the state. The conservative Americans for Prosperity, which has been connected with the national tea party movement, is operating a phone bank in Kenosha County this week.

In addition to the outside money, both Democratic challengers and Republican incumbents have substantial campaign war chests of their own - with the most money likely to be spent in Darling's Milwaukee-area district. Darling and Pasch have raised nearly $1.4 million between them, with Darling collecting the lion's share, some $958,000.

There's also what politicians call a strong ground game in operation in many of the districts - plenty of people out knocking on doors.

David Kreisman, Pasch's campaign manager, said campaign representatives have knocked on 20,000 doors in the Senate district since last Friday. We Are Wisconsin is also out in the district.

In a statement after her victory, Pasch said, "I am proud that the people of the 8th state Senate District have stood up to the cynical ploys of my opponents.

"I look forward to holding honest, insightful debates on the issues with Senator Darling in this summer's recall election."

Conventional wisdom is that Kapanke, who serves an increasingly blue district, and Hopper, whose marital problems have received a wide airing, are the Republicans most vulnerable to being ousted by their Democratic rivals, and that Darling and Cowles are the least likely to fall.

Darling has said she takes the recall election very seriously, and a statement from her Tuesday night says she's proud of her record of balancing the budget without raising taxes.

The recall elections of the six Republicans are just part of the state's unprecedented recall picture.

Democrats facing recalls

Three Democratic state senators also face recall elections, with the first of that voting to start next week.

The recalls of the Democrats were launched in February, after 14 Democratic senators fled the state for three weeks to delay a vote on the collective bargaining measure. Their opponents fault them for leaving their jobs and shirking their duties.

Elections in the recalls of the Democrats are July 19. Two of those races will be Republican primaries; the third, between Sen. Dave Hansen (D-Green Bay) and Republican challenger David VanderLeest of Green Bay, is a general election.

The other two general elections will be Aug. 16.

All of the recall winners will have to run again in November 2012, at least some of them in districts changed by redistricting.

Meg Jones and Larry Sandler of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.