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There's a primary Tuesday, remember?

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Tina Turvey is looking forward to voting in November’s presidential election. Mention that the Wisconsin primary is Tuesday and the 28-year-old University of Wisconsin-Madison student’s eyes get wide.

“I actually didn’t even know about it,” she said.

Yes, there’s an election Tuesday. But it looks like most voters either don’t know about it or don’t care.

With no statewide candidates running, no burning issues and presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama dominating the nation’s political consciousness, state election officials predict only about 15 percent of Wisconsin’s eligible voters will go to the polls.

In South Central Wisconsin, three Democrats, Paulette Garin, Mike Hebert, and Marge Krupp will face each other for the honor of running in the 1st Congressional District race. The winner will take on incumbent U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan of Janesville.

The Town of Fulton is holding a referendum asking voters to approve additional tax money for road repair.

In State Assembly District 80, which includes Magnolia and Spring Valley townships in Rock County, most of Green County and part of Dane County, Democrats John Waelti and Kristin Wisnefske are in the primary. The winner will face State Rep. Brett Davis, R-Oregon in the November election.

But the primary isn’t meaningless. Voters will choose who wins a number of open legislative seats, whether a handful of incumbents keep their jobs — at least for another two months — as well as who deserves party support and who faces who in the fight for state Assembly control come November.

“They’re the semifinals. This is the conference league championship before the Super Bowl,” said University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee political scientist Mordecai Lee, a former Democratic state senator.

Primary elections take place when more than one candidate from a single party run for the same office. The winner earns the right to face opponents from other parties in the general election.

Thirty-four of the state Assembly’s 99 districts feature a primary. Eleven incumbents face a primary challenger. Eight contests are for vacant seats, where the winner will win the seat outright.

“In many districts, this is the general election,” Lee said. The results of those races will help solidify the field as Democrats look to wrest Assembly control from Republicans in the Nov. 4 general election. The GOP holds a 51-47 edge in the chamber.

Democrats already control the state Senate. Gov. Jim Doyle is a Democrat, and if the party can hold onto the Senate and take over the Assembly it will be able to advance its agenda at will.