The sixth candidate, Alice Cancel, is a novice politician, like the others, but she is also the incumbent assemblywoman, having won a special election in April to fill out Mr. Silver’s unfinished term. Mr. Silver and his cronies maneuvered her onto the ballot, for reasons that were never really clear. Her performance on Tuesday deepened the mystery; if she has qualifications for the job, she kept them well hidden.

Mr. Silver was the elephant in the room — though he wasn’t in the room; he’s out on bail, trying to delay his appointment with a prison cell. A question about Mr. Silver’s legacy gave Ms. Cancel an opportunity to disown his blackened record and acknowledge the harm he had done. She demurred.

Asked how she would stop gentrification and high-rise construction from destroying affordable housing, she drew a blank: “To be very honest with you, I don’t know the answer to that question, in terms of how do we stop what’s going on,” she said, before suggesting that maybe rezoning would help, which might have been a good answer if she were running for City Council.

But the other candidates stepped in to fill the vacuity, on housing and other issues, like policing, schools and climate change. It soon became clear that voters in the district could indeed have a real opportunity to move beyond Mr. Silver and his echo, Ms. Cancel.

Mr. Lee made a businessman’s case for technology and job creation. Ms. Li, Ms. Niou, Mr. Newell and Ms. Rajkumar gave thoughtful, informed answers about infrastructure, land use and police-community relations. Mr. Newell, who ran against Mr. Silver in 2008, showed a strong command of housing policy, discussing the need for rent regulations and tenant protections to keep people of modest means in their homes.