Charles B. Rangel did it again. Even though nobody expected otherwise, Rangel was elected to his 21st term in Congress on Tuesday, winning about 80 percent of the vote. “We did it again,” Rangel was quoted as saying by DNAinfo.com. “You ain’t seen nothing yet.”

Winning the election was easy, compared to what the congressman has coming next. Rangel is facing 13 charges of ethics violations, including failure to report income from various sources, misuse of congressional free mail privileges and use of an upper Manhattan subsidized apartment for a campaign office instead of a residence.

“Even though they are serious charges, I’m prepared to prove that the only thing I’ve had in my 50 years of public service is service,” Rangel told reporters in July, when the charges were announced by the House ethics committee.

Rangel has been a congressman for 20 terms, representing the 15^th, 16^th, 18^th and 19^th districts, whose boundaries have changed three times since his first term in 1971.

“We just had to remind the voters that he was on the ballot,” said Kevin Wardally, Rangel’s campaign manager and longtime associate. Managing Rangel’s campaign was easy, he said. “We just had to remind the people what all he has done and he can do,” Wardally said.

“His campaign in November?” asked Adam Clayton Powell IV, Rangel’s primary opponent. “He doesn’t have to campaign anymore, it’s done.” He added, “the September 14th Democratic primary, that was the elections. It’s over.”

“After the primary, the campaign has been much more low key,” Wardally said. In this heavily Democratic district, it was highly improbable that the party’s candidate would lose.

The campaign used digital media along with more traditional church rallies and candidate forums. “We had 85,000 subscribers to the email blast, through which we shared everything with them, in English and Spanish,” Wardally said.

“I don’t believe he could lose,” Wardally had said on Monday, “but nothing is ever guaranteed.”

But Robert Shapiro, a Columbia University political scientist, sees some differences in Rangel’s campaign this year. “He was more defensive,” he said. “Not being the chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means hurt him.” Rangel had to campaign harder this year, said Thomas Edsall, veteran political journalist and professor at Columbia Journalism School. “He was once a crown prince of Harlem.”

At Republican candidate Michel Faulkner’s headquarters, campaign manager Eric Groberg complained Monday that Rangel had refused to debate, Faulkner accepted all such invitations Rangel turned them down, including one on Halloween at Ramath Orah on 110^th Street.

“Rangel had told Faulkner that his staff advised him not to participate in debates,” Groberg said.

Faulkner had planned to have hundreds of volunteers on the streets today, campaigning aggressively while Rangel had essentially “stopped campaigning the past weekend,” said Groberg.

Rangel’s last truly contested race came in 1993, Wardally pointed out. “He has never got less than 80 percent of votes,” Wardally said.

“The upcoming trial was a constant force,” Wardally added. Rangel raised upwards of $5 million for his last election in 2008, despite not facing a real threat; this year he had raised just $2.8 million by Oct. 13, according to opensecrets.org. Nevertheless, Rangel spent nearly $4 million on his campaign this year, much of it still in his coffers from the last cycle. Faulkner’s campaign raised only $142,520 through Oct. 13.

A major chunk of Rangel’s campaign money has gone to pay the Washington law firm Zuckerman Spaeder for his legal defense. Federal election filings show he paid more than $1.4 million before they parted ways last week.

The joy of another congressional victory may be short-lived for Rangel. His trial by the House ethics committee is scheduled to begin in less than two weeks. It’s unclear whether the trial will be delayed to give the congressman time to assemble a new legal team.

If the ethics committee finds Rangel guilty, it can recommend that he be reprimanded, censured or expelled.

Of these options, a reprimand is the least severe, said Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a nonprofit government watchdog. “A reprimand is a public rebuke of a member’s conduct requiring a House vote,” she said, adding that it sometimes take the form of a public letter explaining what the member did wrong.

The difference between being reprimanded and censured is that the latter is a more public, more embarrassing experience for the politician. “A censure basically means you stand in the well of Congress and have your charges read against you,” Sloan said. “It’s humiliating.”

Sloan believes Rangel will likely be censured, and said it would be strange to expel Rangel, who was re-elected despite the charges against him. “You’re then saying the will of Congress overrules the will of his constituents,” Sloan said.

“My guess is that the Republicans are going to press for something fairly harsh here,” said Steven Billet, director of George Washington University’s Legislative Affairs program. He agreed that censure is a strong possibility, if not worse.

It’s unlikely that Rangel will have to step down, said Edsall. “The charges are not that serious,” he said.

“He is very well liked in the house,” Edsall added. Rangel already had to step down as chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means earlier this year, because of the charges. “Losing the power after having it for so long is embarrassing,” Edsall added.

If expelled, Rangel would lose his seat and a special election will fill the vacant seat. In that case, Powell said he will “absolutely” run. “I’ve made no secret of the fact that whenever the seat is vacant, I will run,” he said. But Powell also thinks it is unlikely that Rangel will lose his seat.

Nobody from Rangel’s camp was willing to comment on his coming ethics trial.

Read The Uptowner’s coverage of the city’s new voting system here in the special report.

Read The Uptowner’s coverage of Democrats sweeping 2010 Elections here in the special report.