It was a great night for Joe B. Who’d a’ thunk it?

Former Vice President Joe Biden

That sentiment applies not only to the results of the Democrats’ presidential primaries on Super Tuesday, in which former Vice President Joe Biden exceeded all expectations and took the lead away from Bernie Sanders. It also describes the out-of-nowhere victory of former city councilman Joe Brown in the Democratic Party primary for General Sessions Court clerk.

In both the national and the local case, the winner’s vote totals were out of all proportion to the campaigning done by the candidate. Biden famously won Massachusetts without spending a nickel there or having an office or any kind of gr

former Councilman Joe Brown

ound game. Joe Brown was conspicuously less visible than his major competitors in a highly populated race in which there were several other name candidates.

Meanwhile, former Probate Court clerk Paul Boyd won the four-way Republican primary for General Sessions clerk and will oppose Brown in a general election showdown in August.In his case, as in Brown’s, name identification played a large part in the outcome.

In the case of Biden, who handily won Tennessee (and Shelby County in the process), the astonishing revival of his previously moribund campaign in last weekend’s South Carolina primary, coupled with a wave of major endorsements from former primary opponents, propelled the ex-Veep into the enviable position that, only days ago, Sanders had been expected to achieve.

The final Shelby County totals:

In the Democratic presidential primary:

Michael Bennet 623
Joseph R. Biden 50,273
Michael R. Bloomberg 18,183
Cory Booker 311
Pete Buttigieg 1,747
Julián Castro 50
John K. Delaney 100
Tulsi Gabbard 229
Amy Klobuchar 1,123
Deval Patrick 54
Bernie Sanders 20,482
Tom Steyer 280
Elizabeth Warren 8,461
Marianne Williamson 28
Andrew Yang 127
Uncommitted 108

In the Democratic primary for General Sessions Court Clerk:

Gortria Banks 7,581
Rheunte E. Benson 1,239
Joe Brown 20,602
Tanya L. Cooper 6,139
A. Dailey-Evans 2,623
Deirdre V. Fisher 2,116
R. S. Ford Sr 3,852
Del Gill 940
Eddie Jones 10,627
Wanda Logan-Faulkner 8,568
Thomas Long 11,457
Reginald Milton 13,127
Tavia Tate 1,466
Write-In 45

In the Republican primary for clerk:

Paul C. Boyd 9,514
Michael Finney 2,949
George Summers 1,924
Lisa W. Wimberly 4,841
Write-In 80 MTK