LSR Managing Editor William Lutz recently published an opinion column in The Washington Examiner discussing this week's primary for governor. My basic point is that in most Republican primaries, it's the social issues that dominate. But this year was different: fiscal conservatives made their voices heard, and Gov. Rick Perry got renominated by appealing to fiscally conservative values. Click here to read the column.

Here is a key excerpt:

Immediately after Gov. Rick Perry's victory in the Texas GOP primary, the press in began trying to discount the Tea Party movement. It had not met the artificially high expectations set for it, neither in the governor's race nor in down-ballot challenges to sitting Republican members of Congress.

But this misses the larger point. After years of playing second fiddle to Texan values voters, fiscal conservatives made their voices heard in Tuesday's Texas Republican primary. Although social issues like abortion, guns, and prayer in school still mattered in this race, taxes and government spending took center stage, up and down the ballot.

One of the battlegrounds in the upcoming general election will be the judicial races in Dallas and Harris County. Democrats have started taking county-wide judicial races, but the GOP thinks it has the opportunity to take these back. Some of the newly-elected judges in these counties are "accidental judges," lawyers of questionable experience who just happened to file at the right time and sometimes have baggage from the past that the GOP hopes to exploit in November. A Houston Democratic judge just gave the Republicans an issue they could only dream about last week -- the Death Penalty.

Today's Houston Chronicle writes about the ruling of Judge Kevin Fine that the Texas Death Penalty is unconstitutional. It notes that Fine -- elected in the 2008 Democratic sweep of Harris County local judgeships -- is a recovering campaign addict who once questioned a rape victim on the stand during punishment phase of a trial.

LSR Managing Editor William Lutz was quoted in the Texas Tribune's article on Victor Carrillo's surprise defeat in Tuesday's primary. Click here to read the story.

Rick Perry won spectacularly without a runoff. Victor Carrillo was defeated in the GOP primary for Railroad Commissioner. Linda Chavez-Thompson won the Democratic lieutentant governor's race and will join Bill White on the ticket. Hector Uribe is the Democratic nominee for Land Commissioner, and Hank Gilbert was nominated for the Democrats over Kinky Friedman for Agriculture Commissioner. The list of defeated House incumbents is as follows: Tommy Merritt, Tara Rios Ybarra, Terri Hodge, Betty Brown, Dora Olivo, and Al Edwards.

We now feel more comfortable calling some of the closer, late-breaking races. the list of incumbents that have been handed walking papers has now grown to include Reps. Tara Rios Ybarra (D-South Padre Island), Betty Brown (R-Terrell), and Al Edwards (D-Houston). Edwards lost by a mere 11 votes, so this could flip in a runoff. Also, add Rep. Norma Chavez (D-El Paso) to the list of incumbents forced into runoffs.
Here are the races we are now calling (in addition to the ones listed in our previous post):

As of this writing, it looks like incumbent Railroad Commissioner Victor Carrillo was defeated in the Republican Primary by David Porter. It also appears like incumbent Supreme Court Justice Eva Guzman won over Rose Vela. Meanwhile on the Democratic side, former AFL-CIO officer Linda Chavez-Thompson appears to have won the lieutenant governor's primary outright.  It appears Hank Gilbert has won the Democratic primary for Agriculture Commissioner. The Democratic land commission primary between Bill Burton and Hector Uribe may still be too close to call.

The Republican primary for the open Supreme Court seat is way too close to call. Former Rep. Rick Green (Dripping Springs) appears to have the upper hand in making one of the runoff slots, though even Green is about a percent and a half above his closest challengers. For the second runoff slot, there is a close contest between Jim Moseley, Debra Lehrmann, and Rebecca Simmons.