First, I defended Silver for "taking one for the team" in not bringing congestion pricing to a vote. Second, I didn't say McMahon was "evil," just that he'll have to explain it; I meant that in view of the fact that Staten Islanders would have gotten nothing from the plan, and that votes were being "bought" all over the place, it seems that McMahon could have gotten something for his vote as well. What, if anything, he got (and whether he got anything at all), will be a campaign issue.

Nor did I "mis-label" Lopez's role in this; I simply maintain that Lopez's backing won't help McMahon any, either in Bay Ridge or on Staten Island. I had no idea how Lopez came to back McMahon, and bow to your greater inside info on this.

I doubt that Harrison is outgunned in name recognition; he has been busy. I also wonder how outgunned he is in money, if he raises enough to run competitively the difference won't make much difference. McMahon definitely has a geographic edge, as over 90% of the votes cast in 2006 were from Staten Island (about 78,000, compared to just over 7,000 cast in Brooklyn). It seems to me that geography was the reason McMahon was chosen by the SI Dems.

It stinks, of course, that someone from the district is not considered to be enough of a district member to be worthy of consideration by the party because of a geographical quirk. But politics is all too often about what is, not about what should be. That's why I wrote that "it makes sense for the SI Dems to back someone who lives on SI."

I still maintain that, unless Harrison decides to challenge Marty Golden (and I believe it will take a lot to get him to do that), it will be an interesting primary season.