A bitter campaign ends with class

There will be time to sort through the consequences. For now, I’m grateful this race reached a peaceable end.

For a race this bitter, the ending was refreshingly decent.

Earlier today, a partial hand recount in the Senate District 26 race left Sheriff Sam Page’s 23-vote lead exactly where it was. A few hours later, Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger conceded.

In one sense, it all felt a little anticlimactic. The outcome had seemed clear for a while, and today’s recount felt more like the formal end than a real moment of suspense. That makes it easy to miss the scale of what just happened.

This is a political earthquake in North Carolina. In terms of consequence, I think it stands second only to the Republican takeover of the General Assembly in 2010.

The resolution leaves us with a million questions. Who leads the Senate next? How does Berger approach the short session? What does this do to budget negotiations? What happens inside the caucus? We’ll get to all of that in time. If you’re anxious to get started, the New York Times broke some new ground in a piece published today, which you can…