Primaries give insider pols a dose of reality

What a wild and wonderful mess this is. Outsiders up. Insiders down. Front-runners last. Dark horses first. Along with every other turn of Primary Day configuration imaginable.

Which promises to make some of this fall's campaigns, big and small, proof of how messy democracy can be.

Cooler heads, rightfully, will say: Too few people vote in primaries to make prognostications about anything. Wait for the general election, when more voters - we hope - go to the polls. Wait until the fall campaigns get rolling.

OK, but . . .

Let's not lose the opportunity to savor a bit of well-needed chaos in a political world that too often runs by script. Sit down, Snooki. This is reality, for real.

First up: Carl Paladino's surprise romp over Rick Lazio in the Republican gubernatorial primary. Yes, Lazio the Local's campaign never took off. Never even made it to backing-a-plane-away-from-the-terminal speed.

But Paladino? He Who Has Forwarded Jokes with Ethnic Slurs and Images of Bestiality and Porn? A spokesman later called the e-mails "off-color," "non-politically correct" jokes and not a true indicator of the candidate's views.

Steve Levy, Suffolk's county executive and failed Republican gubernatorial really-really-wanted-to-be candidate, must have cried in his coffee Wednesday morning. With Paladino's win, it becomes clear that Levy might have been right: He could've been a contender.

Still, things sure will be interesting when Paladino, a Buffalo real estate titan, longtime campaign contributor and longtime New York State contractor, goes up against Andrew Cuomo, a prince of the state Democratic Party.

It'll be two more insiders - add name of almost every state senator and Assembly member here - working overtime to convince New Yorkers that they're really outsiders primed to punch some sense into Albany.

And then there's Kathleen Rice, Nassau County's district attorney - who came up short in a five-way Democratic primary for state attorney general that included winner state Sen. Eric Schneiderman. Rice ran, for too long, as a front-runner. Revelations that she didn't vote until she was 37 weren't helpful. Nassau Democrats came out strong for Rice; in Suffolk, however, the percentage of Democrats who turned out to vote in the race was comparatively low.

How's that for irony? Potential Rice voters stayed home.

In Suffolk, state Assemb. Ginny Fields gained the distinction of being the only Long Island state or federal legislative incumbent to lose Tuesday. She is refusing to concede the close race to Ken Mangan, awaiting a recount. But even then, she might stay in the race as a candidate on minor-party lines.

On Long Island, it was refreshing to see so many trying to push their way past the regular party and into the political process.

It's a difficult thing to do, as tea party activist candidate Daniel Maloney of Baldwin found out. He finished a distant third in the Republican primary in the 4th CD to party favorite Francis X. Becker of Lynbrook.

But sometimes the challenge worked: Tea party favorite James Milano beat GOP favorite Elizabeth Berney in the Republican primary in the 5th CD, while Patrick Nicolosi scored an upset victory in the Democratic primary in the 21st AD over party favorite Mimi Pierre Johnson.

As Long Islanders try to keep their footing in the worst economic crisis, for most, in a lifetime, it's essential not to give up on the political process. The more candidates - and especially voters - the better.

November's coming.

Let's get ready to rumble.