Election results tallied
The results from Tuesday’s primary elections are in with few surprises.
In the race for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, incumbent Rick Perry defeated challengers Kay Bailey Hutchison and Debra Medina, receiving 51.1 percent of the vote. In all, Perry received 754,611 votes to Hutchison’s 447,905 (30.3 percent) and Medina’s 274,895 (18.6 percent).
In the contest for the Democrat gubernatorial nod, former Houston Mayor Bill White handily defeated businessman Farouk Shami, receiving 76.1 percent of the vote to Shami’s 12.8 percent. White took home a total 515,318 votes to Shami’s 86,336.
State House District 129 incumbent John Davis maintained his seat, easily defeating challenger Mary Huls. Davis received 84.7 percent of the vote (7,214 votes) to Huls’ 15.3 percent (1,305 votes).
In one of the day’s few surprises, Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector incumbent Leo Vasquez was defeated by challenger Don Sumners. Vasquez took home only 43.1 percent of the vote with 54,491 total votes, compared with Sumners’ 56.9 percent with 71,822 total votes.
Burger King damaged during Sunday fire
At approximately 3:55 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 28, a fire at Burger King on Scarsdale near Beamer was called in to the Southeast Volunteer Fire Department. The fire was fought for approximately two hours by SVFD, and the Forest Bend Volunteer Fire Department sent 12 firefighters. According to officials at Burger King, no one was injured. There was one local family in the fast food restaurant at the time the fire began. Fire officials say that the fire, which initially was centered in the area shown above, was electrical in nature. It did not start in the cooking area of the restaurant. Both SVFD and Forest Bend used heavy duty equipment to fight the blaze. To the left can be seen Forest Bend’s ladder hose. On the far right can be seen SVFD’s remote deck gun, which is mounted on the back of the truck. Each of the two hoses shoots out 1,200 gallons of water per minute, putting 2,400 gallons of water a minute on the fire. The Burger King facility, which is approximately 25 years old, will be closed until further notice.
E-mail mynews@southbeltleader.com with news items of interest.