The Voters Have Spoken

Well, the primary results are in, and it looks like Republicans have voted for change in Austin. Of the three local state senate races, each had a Republican candidate dedicated to working toward property tax reform (including the lowering of appraisal caps), heightened border security, and the elimination of the blocker bill in the Texas Senate. All three of these candidates won their primary districts handily, without any need for a run-off:

Texas Senate District 7 (NW Harris County)
	Dan Patrick	68.82%
	Peggy Hamric	16.45%
	Joe Nixon	8.65%
	Mark Ellis	6.07%
Texas Senate District 3 (Montgomery County)
	Robert Nichols	54.19%
	Dave Kleinman	17.98%
	Frank Denton	15.28%
	Bob Reeves	12.55%
Texas Senate District 18 (Fort Bend County)
	Glenn Hegar	54.92%
	Gary Gates	35.63%
	David Stall	9.44%

Embattled incumbent Representative Tom DeLay also surprised some pollsters in his overwhelming victory in a four-man contest:

      

U.S. Representative District 22
	Tom DeLay	73.45%
	Tom Campbell	21.44%
	Mike Fjetland	4.67%
	Pat Baig	3.36%

And of the four propositions put before all Republican primary voters across the state, all four passed by a landslide!

• Prop 1: Proposes requirement of photo ID to vote in any Texas election — Yes — 87.76%
• Prop 2: Prohibit takings of private property — Yes — 93.80%
• Prop 3: Limit government spending increases with some exceptions — Yes — 89.59%
• Prop 4: Reduce property tax increase rate to 5% or less — Yes — 91.69%

It will be interesting to see what this summer's lame duck special session will do in light of these results.