It was a big night for Joe Biden last night on an historic Super Tuesday that appears to have boiled the Democratic presidential primary contest down to Biden versus Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.

After a terrible start in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada, Biden reversed course this past Saturday with a win in South Carolina. As of 7 a.m. Wednesday, he was projected to win nine of 14 Super Tuesday contests, including Texas, according to NBC News. His delegate count surged to 453 so far compared to 373 for Sanders, with behemoth California still to be counted.

“California still remained too close to call, according to NBC News projections, where 415 delegates are at stake. Sanders, however, was leading Biden 33.1 percent to 24.2 percent with 51 percent of the vote in.  Maine’s primary is also too close to call, though Biden was leading Sanders by the slightest margin, 33.9 percent to 32.9 percent.”

The contest had repercussions here, where billionaire Mike Bloomberg put everything on Super Tuesday, including $500 million from his own fortune, only to get steamrolled by fellow moderate Biden.

Bloomberg produced a single win, in American Samoa.

This from Politico:

Bloomberg did not come up completely empty, hitting the threshold in several states to win delegates and remain in contention despite two lackluster debate performances. But after spending more than half a billion dollars on ads, it was not the ballot debut that polishes his brand going into the next wave of presidential contests. Instead, Biden’s once-dour campaign dominated in southern states Bloomberg had hoped to make his mark, and blew him out in Virginia, where Bloomberg spent heavily and did well in polls but dropped to fourth place when the votes were in.

At this moment in time, it looks grim for the guy many thought would be the answer for New Jersey moderates.

“Sanders has captured the hearts and minds of Jersey progressives… while Bloomberg is it for moderates,” Krista Jenkins, director of the Fairleigh Dickinson University poll told the Philadelphia Inquirer last month. The former mayor is performing better in the Garden State than in national polls, she added. “Some of that could be simple name recognition, as Democrats [here] are more likely to know something about Bloomberg than are others nationally.”

Can he come back? (Bloomberg dropped out Wednesday morning).

His statewide director on Monday at the Lesniak Institute reminded people that it’s going to be a long primary season – and there was someone else in the race once written off for dead as recently as last week – if memory serves.

So it’s not over. Also, there is too much progressive energy on the ground for Bernie Sanders to count his failure to knock out Biden as a loss for Jersey allies like state campaign chairman (and U.S. senate candidate) Larry Hamm.

But RIGHT NOW –

WHO’S UP

Dick Codey

The former Governor came out early for Biden, and stuck with him amid back chatter calls for him to pull the plug on the Iowa-hapless former VP. Biden was always going to be a natural fit for populist humanist Codey.

Tom Malinowski

While Jeff Van Drew changed parties sooner than impeach Trump and his other colleagues jumped to billionaire Bloomberg, 7th District Congressman Malinowski stuck with his fellow veteran of the Obama Administration. The state department official was an early Biden ally, who now – in his own battleground district defending against the Trump-fastened Tom Kean, Jr. – now looks pretty muscled-up moderate team loyalist.

Ronald L. Rice

The veteran senator from Newark’s West Ward was also a big early Biden ally, throwing in with the former VP on the heels of Codey’s endorsement.

June S. Fischer

The retired 88-year old Democratic committeewoman last year told InsiderNJ she would walk to Scranton if she needed to in order to support the former vice president’s cause. She even had New Jersey-Biden buttons minted in time for 2020.

WHO’S DOWN

Josh Gottheimer

The 5th District Congressman formally threw in with Bloomberg the day after the former New York mayor produced one of the all-time bad debate performances, as he helplessly endured one attack after another by Elizabeth Warren.

Mikie Sherrill

The 11th District congresswoman put her NJ 11 for Change grassroots and progressive allies in a bit of a pickle by jumping out early with the state’s first big Bloomberg for Prez endorsement.

Andre Sayegh and Adrian Mapp

The Mayor of Paterson and Mayor of Plainfield respectively jumped in with Bloomberg, and now must flounder out of the morass of the mayor’s flagging campaign, which allies insist will persist.

Mike Muller

Bloomberg’s savvy statewide director can’t feel great about Tuesday’s results, and on Monday night at the Lesniak Institute’s Super Tuesday Forum found himself on the receiving end of other Democrats wary of the billionaire and his money. Muller did almost everything imaginable on his end here, while the campaign didn’t deliver on their end there. Can Mike stop the bleeding for Mike in time to keep New Jersey in play for his state’s June 2nd Primary? (Bloomberg dropped out Wednesday morning)

Tom Byrne

The former Democratic State Committee chairman threw in with Bloomberg late, only to get run over last night early.