The primary elections are in the books and it was a wild ride, indeed.

Carl Paladino shocked pundits — and the Republican establishment — by thumping former Long Island Congressman Rick Lazio in the GOP gubernatorial primary. It wasn’t even close.

I spent primary night at the Red Fox in Saranac Lake, where GOP congressional hopeful Doug Hoffman’s campaign team was set up. I was glued to the returns and shocked to see Paladino put up such big numbers. But Lazio’s death knell came when Ralph Lorigo, his opponent in the Conservative primary, actually took a slim lead for a few minutes.

Paladino has little time to celebrate. Andrew Cuomo is a much more formidable and better-financed opponent.

Paladino’s resounding victory makes Doug Hoffman’s failure to gain victory over Matt Doheny that much more interesting, though.

The tea party express made a strong showing last night. In Delaware, Christine O’Donnell handed Congressman Mike Castle a stunning defeat. The tea party could pick up another big win in New Hampshire, too.

So where was the support for Hoffman last night?

I spoke with Hoffman early in the evening, pointing out that tea party candidates were making a strong showing. He told me that gave him confidence.

Not so much. Not only does it look like Hoffman might lose, the voter turnout was shaky at best.

Throughout his campaign, Hoffman took pride in his get-out-the-vote ability based on last year’s special election. The total number of votes for both candidates — about 31,000 — represents less than half of the total votes tallied for Hoffman last November.

Strange stuff, considering the great interest in this election exhibited by voters in the 23rd.

That brings me to the Upstate New York Tea Party, the group that has backed Hoffman throughout the campaign. The talk among news junkies this morning is a press release issued by UNYTEA Chairman Mark Barie. He says Republicans and Conservatives can’t waste time with lengthy recounts.

“There are less than seven weeks until the November election, and we intend to use that time to reorganize and to make the case to voters that Bill Owens has got to go,” Barie said.

“Doug would have to take about two thirds of the absentee ballots in order to win. I think that’s unlikely, but we can not afford to sit idly by while the recount takes place,” he added.

He also made some strong remarks about Hoffman’s campaign:

“I am very disappointed with the way in which the Hoffman campaign was conducted. It was unorganized, it lacked focus, and it failed to take advantage of Doug’s tremendous popularity. Doug’s senior campaign adviser, Chris Baker, ran this campaign from his office in Arizona and he was clearly ignorant of what was happening on the ground here in the North Country,” he said.

“Speaking just for myself, if Doug doesn’t make some personnel changes, his campaign for Congress is going no where. I think his chances for success on the Conservative Party line are minimal. This is true because, unlike last year when he came so close to defeating Bill Owens, this year’s GOP nominee is not a tax and spend liberal. Matt Doheny is a fiscal conservative.”

Barie stopped short of formally endorsing Doheny, however.

I’ll keep you posted with any updates. News outlets are currently waiting (somewhat impatiently) for Hoffman’s team to make an announcement on whether he is conceding or staying in the race as the Conservative candidate.