If you'd like someone with whom to watch election results, and you're an Obama supporter, head down to Scholz Garten – this place is nuts right now. Big-screen TVs everywhere. I just heard MSNBC's Chuck Todd say "Texas may be giving Hillary Clinton lots of votes, but they're not giving her squat for delegates right now," which brought a deafening cheer from the crowd.

You might as well get down here – it looks like this contest is going late into the night.

UPDATE: Oooh – NBC just called Texas for Clinton. That made the crowd grumpy.

Here's something you rarely see in a statewide race: A so-called "also-ran" candidate (so designated by we geniuses in the press) is trouncing the two leading contenders in the race for Texas Railroad Commission. Mark Thompson, whose candidacy garnered all of a few words in Texas newspapers, including this little rag, is holding steady with 48.9% of the vote, while former San Antonio city council member Art Hall (who won most of the big daily endorsements) is trailing in third place with 23.78%, and populist hopeful Dale Henry (our endorsement pick)is in second place with 27.25%. This is with 54% of the vote counted.

Campaign filings with the Texas Ethics Commission show Thompson, a disability rights advocate, raised no money and spent $150 in the primary election cycle. Should Thompson go on to win the nomination, he'll face the GOP Railroad Commission Chair Michael Williams, who's never met an oil and gas PAC he doesn't like.

Boyd Richie may be crowing about how this is a great day for Democrats, but I think it's a pretty sad one. Once again, that idiot Gene Kelly has put his name on the Democratic ballot, and once again, hundreds of thousands of even bigger idiots have voted for him and might force the serious Democratic U.S. Senate candidate into a runoff. It's pathetic. With just under half the vote counted, here are the latest numbers in that race:

Gene Kelly 393,307 votes 27.44%
Ray McMurrey 185,766 12.96%
Richard J. (Rick) Noriega 707,402 49.36%
Rhett R. Smith 146,570 10.22%

Travis County voters have decided that if ain't broke, don't fix it.

After a vicious campaign that saw challenger Glen Maxey attack her with everything including the kitchen sink, 16-year incumbent Travis County Tax Assessor-Collector Nelda Wells Spears obviously had nothing to worry about – this race was over as soon as the early vote totals showed her with a 72% lead, a number that is almost completely unchanged now that 137 of 210 precincts have been counted. But was she worried during the campaign?

“Worried is not a good word,” Spears said tonight at her victory party at De las Casas restaurant in East Austin. “Weary is a better word. It’s not nice to hear bad things said about you every day. It wears on a person.”

We can't say this enough times (actually this is the first time I've ever said this), Clinton's campaign, for all its snazz, seems haunted by some sort of disconnect. At least that seems to be the case in Travis County, where, at last peak at the results, Obama was enjoying a good romp at 63%. That's with 137 out of 210 precincts reporting. Clinton was struggling with just 36% of the vote. Ouchie.

Elsewhere in Texas, Clinton has taken a narrow lead with more than 49% to Obama's 48.3. But Obama's leading in delegates, 64-62.

With Democratic turn-out high (and possibly more significantly, very little undervoting, meaning people were sticking around for the down-ballot races), Texas Democratic Party chairman Boyd Richie has issued this press release:

"The outcome of our presidential primary is already clear: This is a great night for Texas Democrats.

The Texas Democratic Party has conducted comprehensive preparations and developed a fair and transparent reporting system for this historic caucus turnout. Texas Republicans only wish they had the kind of "issues" that have been raised by two Democratic campaigns who are working hard for every vote and every delegate.

Record turnout, long lines and overflow crowds at precinct conventions may make democracy take a little longer, but they signal a much longer year for the Republicans as we move forward to victory in November. The real losers tonight are John McCain, John Cornyn, and Texas Republicans."

Larry Joe Doherty called to say the Associated Press had called the CD 10 race for him – not entirely surprising this early out, considering the early numbers had Larry Joe up, and that trend has continued throughout the evening. Either way, congrats to him and Dan Grant on a hard-fought campaign.

The worst thing about caucusing? Waiting around for an eternity to see how your candidate fared in the count. Then getting banished to a lone table at the far end of the school cafeteria with, oh, maybe a dozen other Hillary women, plus three men. The cool kids, with happy, bouncy kids of their own in tow, took up several long tables up front, with way too many of them jockeying to be Obama delegates. The leader of the group had to use a microphone. At Hillary's table, you could talk in a normal tone of voice and still be heard. We finished up and left well before the Obama crowd. "That was depressing," my caucus partner said as we headed home. "It would have been a lot different in Puerto Rico," said she who grew up on the island. "At least people would have been yelling and screaming. There would have been more of a fight."

In the Democratic primary for congressional district 10 – where either Dan Grant or Larry Joe Doherty will go on to face Republican Rep. Michael McCaul in November – the slow trickle of results has candidates on edge. However, and contrary to the endorsements he racked up, Grant – who should count progressive Travis County in his column – got beat in early voting 14,148 to 10,150.

With reports of Travis voting and caucusing absolutely insane, the sky-high turn out is seemingly keeping precincts from reporting. Waiting on results to come in from the other counties in the district, sprawling to the east – Austin, Bastrop, Burleson, Harris, Lee, Waller and Washington has been singularly slow as well.

For CD 10, it looks like it's gonna be a long night