It’s well known that incumbent state legislators are more likely to diein  office than be defeated on Election Day. Sadly, that’s still true — only two sitting lawmakers lost to primary challengers statewide.

Thankfully, one of them was Bronx State Senator Pedro Espada, Jr. The list of his alleged and actual transgressions is long. The state attorney general accused him of bilking his health care network of $14 million.  He held the state legislature hostage by momentarily hopping across the aisle to the GOP and only hopped back when he was promised a leadership position.  His main residence is Westchester and he flouted campaign finance rules with abandon.  We could go on and on …

Despite all this, we’d probably still be calling him Senator Espada come Jan. 1 if a coalition of citizens, labor unions, and elected officials hadn’t rallied fervently and feverishly behind Espada’s young opponent, Gustavo Rivera. 

The jury’s still out on Rivera of course.  He lives in the district but he has not participated in community life here. But that’s mainly because his political work has been centered around working full-time for elected officials. He may not be a fixture around here but public service is clearly in his blood.

If he is elected in the November general election as expected, Rivera will also be held accountable by all the constituencies that carried him on their shoulders across the finish line. Espada acted like he was accountable to no one during his brief tenure, except maybe the landlords that lined his campaign coffers, until the voters showed him otherwise.

We hope that the young Bronxites who got involved in local politics for the first time — their enthusiasm was palpable at Rivera’s victory party — stay involved. Because there’s a lot to do. There was a significant uptick in voter turnout, but those who came out are still just a fraction of the total number of registered Democratic voters in the district (the other parties didn’t have a primary). The only effective antidote to political corruption that is still prevalent in the Bronx and throughout the city is an engaged and vigilant citizenry.

Remarkably, the Bronx Democratic Party (or the machine as it is known) was nowhere to be found in this high-profile race that had statewide implications. Instead, a few individual politicians got behind Rivera on their own steam.

Maybe that’s a good thing. The party itself clearly has no plan or desire to grow its ranks and increase participation – they don’t even have a website! 

Time will tell, but it could be that we’re seeing a new model for political participation in the Bronx that is not beholden to a machine or political club, but instead to a group of people and organizations who believe in honest government and share actual policy goals.

In the meantime, we can all take pride that Bronxites showed they have little patience for politicians who betray the public trust.