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How do Llano County voter preferences stack up against statewide sentiments? Overall, Llano County voters mostly agreed with voters in the state’s other 253 counties in selecting candidates in the March 2 Joint Primary election, with an occasional deviation from the statewide trend.

In the Governor’s race, Llano County Republican voters liked incumbent Governor Rick Perry and challenger Debra Medina a smidge more than statewide voters did, and took less of a shine to Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison than Texas as a whole.

Llano County Republicans overwhelmingly approved the five ballot propositions, as did statewide voters. Llano County voters passed the first four propositions, varying only a percentage point from statewide approval numbers, with these propositions receiving over 90% approval locally and statewide. Proposition 4, authorizing the acknowledgement of God and the Ten Commandments in public, topped the approval numbers, receiving a 96.39% favorable vote in Llano County, and 95.14% statewide.

Proposition 5, which would require sonograms before elective abortions, passed by much lower numbers. Statewide, Proposition 5 passed with 68.86% approval, but Llano County Republicans gave it only a 61.47% favorable vote.

In the Democratic Primary, Llano County voters agreed with statewide voters in selecting Bill White to be the nominee in the fall election. However, Llano County’s Democrats overwhelmingly chose White, with 475 (94.24%) of the 504 voters checking his name. Statewide, White gathered only 75.98% of the Democratic primary vote in the seven candidate field.

Llano Democrats would have put former Travis County District Attorney on the November ballot as their candidate for Lt. Governor. Earle garnered 309 votes (64.1%) in the Llano County Democratic primary. However, Earle’s name will not be on the fall ballot, since labor organizer Linda Chavez-Thompson clobbered him statewide, gathering 53.14% of the vote compared to Earle’s 34.62% statewide tally.

The March 2 results reveal that Llano County had a significantly higher percentage of registered voters turning out to vote than the statewide average. Of Llano County’s 13,929 registered voters, 3,888 voters (27.91%) participated in the Republican primary, and 504 voters (3.61%) participated in the Democratic primary, for a combined total of 31.5% of Llano County registered voters participating in the Joint Primary.

Of the state’s 13,023,358 registered voters, 1,485,440 (11.39%) hit the polls in the Republican primary, and 680,907 (5.22%) voted in the Democratic primary, for a combined total of 16.6% of Texas registered voters participating in the Joint Primary.

U.S. Representative Mike Conaway easily won re-nomination as the Republican candidate for the 11th Congressional District, however his two challengers drew interest locally that differed from the results for the whole 36 county district. Conaway took 72.18% of the vote in Llano County, but won the west central Texas district with 77.37% of the vote. Challenger Al Cowan made inroads in Llano County, gathering 20.37% of the vote compared to only 9.29% district wide. Chris Younts did not catch on in Llano County, notching only 7.44% of the local vote, compared to 13.33% district wide.

The only statewide primary run-off election will be for Place 3 for Justice on the Texas Supreme Court to determine who will be the Republican candidate in the November general election. In the six-way Republican primary contest for the seat being vacated by the retirement of Justice Harriet O’Neill, the top two vote getters will face off in the April 13 run-off election.

In the primary, former state legislator Rick Green gathered 19.95% of the vote in Llano County and 18.93% of the vote statewide. Green, 38, a lawyer from Dripping Springs, devotes time as a representative of WallBuilders, a group dedicated to adding more fundamentalist Christian religious beliefs and values into public education.

Ft.Worth District Judge Debra Lehrmann, 53, drew 18.07% of the Llano votes and 18.2% of the statewide vote in the primary. Lehrmann has been a judge for 22 years and wrote the Texas Annotated Family Code, a reference work often used by lawyers who handle divorce and child custody cases.

The winner between Green and Lehrmann will face Democrat Jim Sharp, a Houston appeals court judge, and Libertarian William Bryan Strange III, a Dallas lawyer, in the November election.

Although primary run-offs often fail to draw significant voter participation, especially when the only statewide race on the ballot is a judicial contest, the April 13 election may draw local voters to the polls since Llano County will have two precinct races decided in the run-off. In central and southeast Llano County, Precinct 1 incumbent Justice of the Peace Richard Owen of Horseshoe Bay will face challenger W. Kermit Robinson of Llano. The winner will be the next JP for Precinct 1 as there is no Democratic candidate.

In Precinct 2, the new Llano County Commissioner will be either Linda Raschke of Kingsland or Marvin Gray of Tow, the top two vote getters in the four person field to replace retiring Llano County Commissioner Henry Parker.