Really, it seems silly to think it could have happened any other way than this.

State Sen. Rickey Hendon was such a charismatic figure in his 5th District seat, such a staple in the black community and so popular amongst his colleagues. If he was leaving so suddenly, the process of replacing him had to be interesting.

But not that interesting, in the end.

Folks who say the fix was in by replacing him with State Rep. Annazette Collins might not be all the way right. But there certainly didn’t seem to be much chance for the little people in the race to replace Hollywood Hendon.

In a dog-and-pony show at Teamster City on Jackson Boulevard in the West Loop, Secretary of State Jesse White held court over the room, as the candidates came before him and the group of Democratic committeemen like so many Tumbler wannabes.

Some candidates spoke authoritatively, some calmly. Some spoke of political actions, some spoke of community factions.

White asked them if they’d support a hike in the cigarette tax, and a bill that would rebuild the state’s infrastructure. Few dared say no.

When White asked one candidate, a former cop and teacher named Bruce Jackson, what he thought of Barack Obama, Jackson answered that he thought Obama was an outstanding president.

“Then why didn’t you vote for him?” White then thundered, apparently having discovered Jackson didn’t vote in the 2008 election. Jackson sputtered, deflated, and just like that, his hopes at the seat were gone.

Three white candidates dared lobby for appointment to the seat once held by a black man — A do-gooder lobbyist named Jonathan Goldman, 2008 runner-up to Hendon (and columnist for this paper) AmySue Mertens and, of course, Scott Lee Cohen.

Needless to say, none of the three made the final cut. Cohen claims someone encouraged him to put in for the seat but left him out to dry by not actually nominating him for it. Mertens and Goldman both made the first cut, but neither walked out with the seat.

In the end, White said, it came down in the back room to Annazette Collins vs. mayoral also-ran Patricia Van Pelt-Watkins.

If White can be believed, there’s something slightly comforting about that. Watkins was an afterthought in the mayoral campaign, a fringe candidate who blasted press releases every day with hopes of getting attention. Why she didn’t get attention from major media outlets, no one may ever know.

But at Teamster City on Monday, she sounded smart and authoritative. She does have a doctorate, something few of the other candidates could even say. And it’s unlikely she was involved in any behind-the-scenes horse trading.

So the fact that a relatively ordinary citizen made it so far is extremely comforting, even in the face of the soul-crushing insiderism that led to one political insider getting the office of another.

Now, the race is on for Collins’ seat. Let the horse trading resume!