It's been an odd political season in New York.

Everyone, more or less, agrees that our political system is dysfunctional. As we pointed out before, here and here, term limits in the City are an object of near-universal agreement (except among those who stand to lose their paychecks due to them, which shouldn't surprise anyone).

So one would naturally be led to believe that the raft of primaries hitting today would provoke an angry flood of disgusted citizens streaming to the polls carrying, at least in spirit, the occasional pitchfork. Change is the big buzzword of this election; Democrats declined to hire quasi-incumbent Hillary Clinton for the Presidential race, while on the other side of the aisle, where the crazies dwell, George McBush is providing endless comedy fodder by play-acting the change agent. Meanwhile, here in New York, we're actually on the cusp of real change, if Democrats succeed in our goal of taking the State Senate. Make no mistake: taking the Senate majority would be revolutionary for the governance of this state.

The problem is that the main agent of change, the left, is divided and incoherent in today's primary.

Take, for example, Steve Harrison's race in the Thirteenth Congressional District. Harrison has positioned himself as the left candidate versus Councilman Mike McMahon. However, a recent SUSA poll shows McMahon beating Harrison among self-described liberals by 61% to 23%. Democratic primaries are notoriously difficult to poll, obviously, but the numbers suggest that Progressive support hasn't solidified behind Harrison.

In the 21st Senatorial District, ideology, governing philosophy, agenda discussion, whatnot, is largely absent in a primary that is a simple ethnic power struggle between native-born blacks, Caribbean-American blacks, and Jews, each of whom have their candidate. Unfortunately, of the three, only incumbent Senator Kevin Parker can be counted on to vote for a Democratic Senate Leader come 2009. The same applies in the Bronx primary between incumbent Efrain Gonzales and party-switcher Pedro Espada. Ironically enough, if you want real change at the state capitol, you're better off sticking with the incumbents in both races.

In the 64th AD, it's dust and ashes, mainly because there are two challengers, Paul Newell and Luke Henry, to incumbent Sheldon Silver. The split between two challengers makes the re-election of Silver not unlikely, unless lightning strikes. But lightning does strike occasionally.

In the Tenth Congressional District, voters are being treated to that rare spectacle, an incumbent spontaneously bursting into flames out of sheer frustration. In that race, you've got to give incumbent Ed Towns some credit; getting Rock Hackshaw on your team, in a black-majority district, is probably the best money you can spend online. If Towns has an online problem, it stems from his other supporters, for whom vigorous sockpuppet trashing of his opponent, Kevin Powell, seems to be the primary form of expression, even if the inevitable result is to raise the simple question of why the incumbent isn't running on his record.

In the 25th SD, finally, no one has any idea what's going to happen. On the one hand, challenger Daniel Squadron has the support of the Working Families Party, the reform community, The New York Times, and the entire shop of United States Senator Chuck Schumer. On the other, incumbent Marty Connor, target of sustained vitriol from the left in his last primary, has managed to rally support from such unlikely sources as Chris Owens, who sent out an email to his list last night endorsing Connor, among others (Humorous aside: the Satmar split between the supporters of Aron and Zalman Teitelbaum respectively is mirrored in this race; Aron is with Squadron, Zalman, with Connor. Only in New York.)

So we'll see how it all goes, but speaking strictly for myself, I can't wait for this primary to be over.