Voters Send Espada Back To Mamaroneck

There’s a ton of craziness from yesterday’s primaries, include the particularly wacky-and if you’re a Democrat, incredibly positive-result in Delaware, but let’s just focus on New York, where some amazing things happened.

The best news of the night came from Senate District 33, where incumbent Pedro Espada Jr. was delivered a savage beating by newcomer Gustavo Rivera, who took 62% of the vote. Speaking of savage beatings, Espada’s former Senate colleague Hiram Monserrate, kicked out of that body earlier this year on account of the whole girlfriend’s-face-slashing business, was defeated in his comeback shot at the Assembly. In the Attorney General race, Eric Schneiderman, who ran on a deliberately liberal platform, took the Democratic nomination, while Charlie Rangel survived his primary fight against Adam Clayton Powell. And in one of the big “Tea Party” upsets of the night, Carl Paladino took the Republican gubernatorial nomination, beating Rick Lazio. Here’s how the Post explains it:

His campaign began with a series of embarrassing revelations that could easily have torpedoed his bid. He was caught forwarding racist and dirty e-mails, and referred to Assembly speaker Sheldon Silver — an Orthodox Jew — as “Hitler.”

But Paladino, plainspoken and seemingly earnest, was backed by the influential Tea Party movement, as well as by voters impressed with his message.

Yes! His impressive message of plainspoken racism! You can see how that would be a winner with a certain set.

Ah, democracy. It does some interesting things sometimes.