A lot of people — me included, I will admit — were surprised by the extent by which Isle of Wight Republican voters rejected Rex Alphin’s bid for the 64th District party nomination.

Alphin didn’t just lose Isle of Wight; he lost it big while going on to lose the party’s district nomination to Suffolk’s Emily Brewer. Fifty five percent of Isle of Wight’s Republican voters supported Brewer over Alphin. Even more striking, she won all eight of the precincts north of Windsor, some by substantial margins. Alphin carried the six smaller, more rural precincts of the county’s south end.