Cleaning off the desk after the most compelling election of our time:

• Score one for Erie County Republican Chairman Jim Domagalski and his sponsorship of suspended Buffalo detective Dennis Delano for the State Senate. It was a long-shot from the get-go, but actually offered 58th District voters a choice for the first time in a generation.

Still, Delano stumbled badly when he refused to air his views in respected and nonpartisan forums like those run by the League of Women Voters. His redefinition of what is political and what is basic to the process just didn’t work.

But he startled a surprised Bill Stachowski, tying him up and forcing him and Senate Democrats to drop a boatload of money on a district usually considered super-safe.

• While you’re at it, score one for Stachowski. He dusted off political instincts that hibernated for years until they were needed. And in an age when not every pol leans on party labels, it was interesting to note his signs reading “Stachowski — Democrat” while every ad labeled his opponent “Republican Dennis Delano.”

All it did was work.

• As long as we’re handing out gold stars, how about one for Republican operative Nick Langworthy? A young veteran of Congressman Tom Reynolds’ shop, Langworthy took a political neophyte like Chris Lee, managed his campaign and steered him into the House of Representatives.

• Credit should also go to guys like Dan Humiston and David Crimmen, who took on entrenched incumbents Brian Higgins and Louise Slaughter with no hope of winning. But they worked hard at it, and helped preserve the integrity of the process.

• Are Republican congressmen becoming an endangered species in the Northeast? No Republican member of the House now hails from New England after Rep. Chris Shays of Connecticut lost on Tuesday, while New York’s once healthy GOP delegation shrinks to just three out of 29.

• County Executive Chris Collins showed this campaign season that he can play the political game quite well when he wants to, even if he’d rather you not notice. He dispatched his top political guru — Washington- based Michael Hook — to Assembly candidate Jane Corwin and Senate candidate Mike Ranzenhofer and emerged with two tallies in the “W” column.

What next for the county executive?

• Buffalo Sabres boss Tom Golisano and the Erie County Board of Elections provided the best political theater of the season in their showdown over his dealings with several political action committees run by political pal Steve Pigeon, with Republican Commissioner Ralph Mohr claiming alleged coordination with Democratic Senate candidate Joe Mesi.

Mohr raises legitimate questions about the roles of those committees.

Golisano raises legitimate questions about the involvement of Mohr and Democratic Commissioner Dennis Ward (his wife and brother opposed Mesi in the September primary), and why the board chose this case to exercise its subpoena power for only the second time in at least the last nine years.

• Mayor Byron Brown and Erie County Democratic Chairman Len Lenihan shook hands at the pre-election rally at UAW Headquarters in Amherst on Nov. 1, but the mayor was a no-show at the Dem gathering in Ellicott Square on Election Night.

That’s yet another indication of the frosty relationship between Democratic Headquarters and City Hall.

• Quote of the Week comes from Congressman Tom Reynolds on March 20, when he announced his retirement from Congress: “Make no mistake. This is a Republican district, and it will be represented by a Republican again next year.”

Republican Lee won the seat in a landslide on Tuesday.