MADISON, Wis (Reuters) – The closely watched race for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court remained too close to call on Wednesday with fewer than 600 of the more than 1.4 million votes cast separating incumbent David Prosser from challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg.

The election, the first statewide vote since Republicans passed controversial restrictions on the union rights of public workers, was seen by some political analysts as a referendum on that measure and the scope of the mandate the Republican Party can claim as a result of last fall’s elections.

The struggle over state union powers propelled Wisconsin to center stage in a wider national debate over that issue and government spending.

With 99 percent of the precincts in the state reporting, Prosser had garnered 733,074 votes to Kloppenburg’s 732,489. Among the areas where votes still needed to be counted were precincts in Milwaukee and Dane County, two typically Democratic strongholds.

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