Bay City Tribune

Matagorda County turned out 5,150 voters in Tuesdays primary election.

The republican primary saw more voters than usual with a difference of 826 voters between its 2,162 voters and 2,988 voters in the democratic primary.

In years past, voters in the democratic primary have almost doubled those who turned out for the republican primary.

In the 2006 gubernatorial primaries there were almost the identical amount of voters but the partisan split was significantly different, said County Clerk Gail Denn.

Democrat voters in the 2006 primary outnumbered republicans 4,519 to 753.

Rick Perry received an overwhelming vote of support from Matagorda County voters taking over half of the votes from challengers Kay Bailey Hutchison and Debra Medina - 1,118; 573; and 458 respectively.

Matagorda County's support for Perry almost mirrored that of the state average with 52.02 percent of the county vote and 52.80 percent of the statewide vote.

Long time U.S. Representative Ron Paul easily kept his nomination as Republican party candidate to represent district 14 garnering almost 86 percent of the vote with 1,807 to challengers John Gay's 71 votes, Tim Graney's 137 votes and Gerald D. Wall's 87 votes.

Donald Simons, the only local candidate that ran on the republican ticket, amassed 416 votes to vie for the precinct 2 commissioner seat against either Kent Pollard or James Mitchell.

The Tribune originally reported that Simons received 333 votes on election night, but his totals were changed by the County Clerk's office after a hand count.

Republican voters also showed strong support for all five party referendums proposed on the ballot: requiring a photo ID when voting; controlling government growth; cutting federal income taxes; public acknowledgement of God; and requiring sonograms be shown to mothers before a medically unnecessary, elective abortion.

Matagorda County's democratic voters threw strong support to former Houston Mayor Bill White as their gubernatorial nominee giving him almost 84 percent of the vote with 2,234 compared to Farouk Shami's 190, Felix Alvarado's 85, Alma Ludivina Aguado's 64, Clement E. Glenn's 36, Star Locke's 34 and Bill Dear's 24.

Linda Chavez-Thompson received 1,124 votes for Lt. Governor democratic nominee compared to 609 for Ronnie Earle and 459 for Marc Katz.

Only 30 votes separated Matagorda County's democratic choice for Commissioner of Agriculture Richard "Kinky" Friedman and Hank Gilbert - 1,190 to 1,160.

Democrat voters also showed their support for the unopposed incumbents.

Matagorda County Judge Nate McDonald received 2,294

District Clerk Becky Denn received 2,320

County Treasurer Amy King Perez received 2,284

County Surveyor James Rother received 2,085

Justice of the Peace Pct. 2 Suzan Thompson received 612

Just of the Peace Pct. 3 Jerry Purvis received 225

Justice of the Peace Pct. 6 Raymond Taggart received 165