2010 TX Primary Elections: Races You Should Be Watching

EDIT: Patrick McLeod gives us a wee-hours rundown of tonight's events.

We have our Election Tracker sidebar up tonight, following a few of the biggest primary races tonight, but as always, there are turning out to be some sleepers and some surprises tonight. Click through to read more about these races.

The biggest question you'll be hearing from pundits tonight is whether Rick Perry can squeak a majority victory in the Republican primary, meaning he can start fighting the general election fight and avoid a messy runoff. It's a top-of-the-ticket race, and polling had earlier indicated that ours wasn't going to be so exciting: as predicted, Mayor Bill White is starting off with a solid lead over Farouk Shami for the Democratic gubernatorial bid.

In our Lite Guv race, labor leader and ex-DNC vice chair Linda Chavez-Thompson is leading early over Travis County DA Ronnie Earle, who is probably having some Travis County votes siphoned off from him by a stronger-than-expected showing from Marc Katz. And Hank Gilbert currently has the lead in the colorful Agriculture Commissioner race over Kinky Friedman.

The last race in the Democratic top of the ticket is for Land Commissioner, which is neck-and-neck this early on:
TX-LandCom-D

• Bill Burton: 52.5%
• Hector Uribe: 47.5%

It's too early to be looking at regional races, just from the low number of votes cast, but a few of the races to keep an eye out for are:

• Dem-CD 18, where Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee drew two primary opponents, one of which (Jarvis Johnson) has been making the race -- what's the term I used previously? "Colorful?" -- with some aggressive campaigning and a tiff over stolen yard signs. (Kid you not.)
• Rep-CD 4, where Congressman Hall's opponent, Steve Clark, made a strong showing in early voting.
• Rep-RRCom, where incumbent Victor Carrillo got clobbered in early voting by David Porter.
• The Republican SBOE races, where a couple of incumbents look like they're having to fight for their lives -- including universally disliked flat-earther Don McLeroy in
  District 9.
• And a number of state House races where anti-incumbent sentiment seems to be having a surprising effect on both sides.

Stay with us tonight, as we update you with numbers and hot races as they come in. And as always, thanks for reading!