Former Assemblyman John Burzichelli (D-3) prevailed tonight in his Democratic Primary.

The collapse of Senator Steve Sweeney in LD-3 and ascent of nonunion truck driver Ed Durr at the head of a ragtag band of red voters reshaped the piney centerpiece of South Jersey’s political empire.

This year, as he seeks to defend his seat in a general election, Durr had his own GOP Primary to contend with, as he finally steamrolled past Assemblywoman Beth Sawyer.

Pawing at the turf to meet Durr in the general, stands Burzichelli, who’s running in place of the retired Sweeney for Sweeney’s old LD-3 senate seat.

“Election Day here is very, very quiet,” Burzichelli told InsiderNJ earlier today. “We’ve had a significant number of vote by mails, around 5k. I suspect maybe 3k people will vote today.”

The respected former Assemblyman doesn’t exactly hear Bertrand Russell-level discourse when he tunes into the Republican Primary in his district.

“I think observing it from the distance, I feel like I’m watching a repeat of the Jerry Springer Show,” he told InsiderNJ. “It seems whoever doesn’t win will have deeply hurt feelings.

“Of course, we have a primary here, too.”

Mario De Santis, aligned with “The Good Democrats”, wanted to beat the ever-pragmatic Burzichelli.

“We’ve paid attention,” the former assemblyman said. “We started an earlier mix of the usual things. Texting has taken the place of phone banking. We’ve moved 4k door hangers out.”

It paid off.

“On to the main event,” Burzichelli said, referring to his coming general election shpowdown with Durr,