courtesy Charles Schwertner campaign

Early returns show the four-way GOP scrum for the Texas House seat of outgoing state Rep. Dan Gattis, R-Georgetown, isn’t as close as some had predicted. Orthopedic surgeon Dr. Charles Schwertner is way up on the other candidates: Milton Rister, Stephen Thomas and Patsy Williams. Schwertner has 57 percent of the early vote.

Schwertner, a Texas Medical Association-backed candidate, far outspent the other candidates in the race. Observers in the Central Texas district also said he held an advantage with many of the area’s elderly voters, whom Schwertner has treated in his practice.

Our full primary results are available on the 2010 elections landing page.

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Elise Hu was a political reporter at the Tribune, focusing on multimedia projects, from 2009 to 2011. She previously worked as the state political reporter for Austin's ABC affiliate, KVUE-TV, from 2006...