And the winner is ... Marc Basnight?

One of the big winners of tonight's primary wasn't on the ballot.

Senate president pro tem Marc Basnight is a big ally of three of the Democratic candidates who won primary races tonight: gubernatorial nominee Beverly Perdue, lieutenant governor candidate Walter Dalton and U.S. Senate nominee Kay Hagan.

All three are graduates of Basnight's finishing school, serving in the state Senate and on the powerful appropriations committee. And all three beat challengers who did not come from that mold.

A fourth winner, state treasurer candidate Janet Cowell, served in the Senate for two terms and on the budget committee.

If any of them win in November, Basnight's power base in Raleigh will grow.

Already, he has built a powerful political machine that's lasted since 1993, outlasted a rival power base set up in the House by now disgraced former Speaker Jim Black and had good relationships with two two-term Democratic governors, Jim Hunt and Mike Easley.