Tight races with a multitude of candidates produced the expected results Tuesday, as runoff elections appear certain for state house district 28, Fort Bend County attorney, County Court-at-law #1 and Fort Bend County Republican Party Chairman.
John Zerwas finished a comfortable lead in the six-way race for District 28. However, the 2,547 votes he received just represent a hair over 25% of the total. Zerwas needed one vote over 50% to avoid a runoff.
According to Texas election law, if no candidate in a primary race receives more than 50% of the vote, the two candidates with the most votes must meet in a runoff election on the second Tuesday in April, which is the 11th.
The question was, which of Zerwas’ challengers would be in the runoff against him? Mike Baldwin had 1,523 votes as of 11:45 p.m., and David Melanson had 1,514. But five still-uncounted precincts were in Wharton County, much nearer to the El Campo banker’s home than to Baldwin’s.
Sure enough, when the last votes were counted and turned in around 1:30 a.m. Wednesday, Melanson had gained almost 150 votes, for a total of 1,663, while Baldwin picked up only 17, or 1540. Which means Melanson will meet Zerwas in the runoff.
The other run-offs already have been decided. Roy Cordes Jr. and Carolyn McDaniel will face each other April 11, and challenger Bob Burton got edged out. Cordes pulled in 7,132 votes, McDaniel had 6,590 and Burton received 5,297.
Bud Childers took 46.7% of the vote – not quite enough to avoid a run-off with Nina Schaefer, who had 35.5% of the vote.
And a tight GOP chairman’s race will turn into a run-off between Gary Gillen (who took 6,953 votes) and Linda Howell (6,579 votes). Jim Stokes is out of the running with 5,320 votes.
