In some influential Conservative circles there was a furious debate, sparked by Matthew Parris' article in The Times about whether Clacton was the sort of place they needed to abandon to get a majority.
No need. Today it abandoned them.
A political earthquake was the description of the result from UKIP leader Nigel Farage rumbling through Clacton town square, dreaming not of one MP but as many as a dozen, next May.
He told the media scrum that UKIP could find itself in a hung parliament where it has "serious influence" in the Commons.
Douglas Carswell made history, taking UKIP from 0 to 60% vote share - an extraordinary swing in the vote from someone called Douglas Carswell.
At UKIP's private victory party at 3.30am, gate-crashed by Sky News, he told supporters "we've waited 21 years for this".
The Carswell personal touch was evident in his victory lap in Clacton, as he high-fived Clacton's Earth Angel, a performance artist, and also evident in a 35% winning margin.
So just how replicable is this feat? The stunning margin has raised UKIP hopes for Mr Carswell's friend and fellow defector Mark Reckless in Rochester. A victory there really does threaten off-the-scale seismic activity.
But it's not about earthquakes. It's about tides, surges and coastal defences. The purple tide has swept through Clacton.
Tory defences collapsed by the defection of one of their own. But despite doing almost as well in a Labour heartland, Ed Miliband's defences held just.
Now all eyes are across the waters to Rochester with the UKIP insurgents claiming if that falls they can sweep the whole of north Kent, and begin to dream of a dozen constituencies.
For his part, Mr Miliband was less than triumphalist in a narrow victory for his NHS-focused campaign in Heywood, saying to those who voted for UKIP or were considering backing UKIP: "I'm determined that we listen and deliver".
The Prime Minister laid out what will be a familiar binary choice at the election, saying: "If you vote UKIP you're in danger of getting a Labour government with Ed Miliband as Prime Minister, Ed Balls as Chancellor and you'll get no action on immigration, no European referendum."
At UKIP's private victory party in a country pub I was left thinking: "Can this band really fight simultaneous national campaigns in a General Election? And do UKIP really not care which mainstream politicians they end up kippering?"
I asked Mr Farage: "Are you indifferent to David Cameron or Ed Miliband being Prime Minister?
Farage replied: "Well, let's just work this out, shall we? Both of them want us to be in the EU, both of them support total open door immigration policy, both think the wind farms off Clacton here are pretty, I think they're vile.
"There are some little differences around the edges. Frankly we're not voting next year for change of government, we're voting for a change of management."
Vote UKIP get UKIP is their new mantra. And they proved it here for the first and not last time.
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