Republican Primary Results, Texas Governor’s Race, 2% of Precincts + Early Votes Reporting
Rick Perry–221,748 (51%)
Kay Bailey Hutchison–133,635 (31%)
Debra Medina–76,308 (18%)
A lot of the votes cast in this race were early votes, so it might be hard to move these numbers much as the night wears on. The big story in this one will be whether or not incumbent Governor Rick Perry can close the deal tonight and avoid a runoff election. Even though Perry would be heavily favored to score a runoff win against Hutchison, that would entail another month on focusing on someone other than the certain Democratic nominee, former Houston Mayor Bill White.
Perry was no doubt saved by the implosion of teabagger candidate Debra Medina, who had shot from the low single digits to over 20% in some polling, only to plateau after getting caught going 9/11 truther on the Glenn Beck Show.
Downballot, the battle for sanity on the state Board of Education is fully engaged, with several tight races involving uber-conservative GOP incumbents being challenged by more sober conservative voices within the GOP. One race, in the 9th district of the state Board, is a 50/50 contest at last check, pitting incumbent Republican Don McElroy against comparably moderate challenger Thomas Ratliff. Some of McElroy’s crusades on the board have been quite remarkable, enough so that Dallas Morning News Education writer William McKenzie called it the “second most” important race in Texas tonight.
Democratic Primary Results, Texas Governor’s Race, 2% of Precincts + Early Votes Reporting
Bill White–127,744 (76%)
Farouk Shami–19,582 (12%)
Felix Alvarado–8097 (4%)
It was common knowledge that Bill White was going to be the Democratic nominee for Governor. By any objective standard, however, his stomping defeat of hair care magnate Farouk Shami is pretty darned impressive. Shami had dropped more than a little cash on this race, and is still getting blasted by a better than six-to-one margin.
Downballot, there are a couple of interesting races to keep an eye on. In the high-profile two-man primary for agriculture commissioner, ‘06 nominee (and onetime gubernatorial aspirant) Hank Gilbert has the early 54-46 edge over ‘06 Independent gubernatorial candidate Kinky Friedman. In the competitive primary for Lt. Governor, Linda Chavez-Thompson has opened up an early 51-37 advantage over former D.A. Ronnie Earle.
One interesting note that is germaine to both parties: much of the talk has been about how angry voters are at “the mess in Washington”. Tonight’s primary in Texas makes clear voter anger is not limited to federal elected officials: a number of incumbent state Representatives, on both sides of the aisle, are either trailing or barely leading as of a few minutes ago.



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