ATLANTIC CITY – The two men backed into each other in the packed room and people in the vicinity cleared as when two gunslingers find each other in a bar in an old west movie. Democratic State Party Chairman LeRoy Jones turned, fist cocked, and there was Republican gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli, doing the Muhammad Ali lip bite, as if he needed someone to run in and pull him off pronto before he knocked Jones’ block off. But the chairman brought a friendly hand up amid relieved gasps as Ciattarelli slammed an equally happy hand in and the men embraced.

It was like that in Atlantic City tonight, as New Jersey insiders from both parties tried to rearview mirror the presidential season with accelerated 2025 antics, amid the strangulation hold of Christmas season scenery in mid-November, everyone trying to project him or herself as the successor to sitting Governor Phil Murphy, on his way out the door at the end of next year.

Bumping in for a Blackhorse Pike landing off the Parkway into the perpetually embattled seaside gambling mecca, notorious teeth-cutting territory for President-elect Donald Trump, partiers looked up and saw a “Steven Fulop for Governor” billboard featuring the mayor’s face that might as well have been Frank Sinatra as Maggio in a blown-up screen shot the size of a drive-in movie theater showing of From Here to Eternity.

Off Martin Luthor King Boulevard a short time later, a car pulled onto the shoulder as two TV trucks rumbled in, back-to-back, with “Sean Spiller for Governor” projecting into the murky night against a backdrop of the lit sign “Tropicana”.

Over at the Irish Pub, former Senate President Steve Sweeney was holding court with an entourage.

Jon Bramnick was spotted. Mike Sherrill sighted. Josh Gottheimer.

Everyone was running into someone who wants to be governor, except those who want to be governor, who tried to avoid those others pursuing governor, to avoid the appearance of suggesting to a voter that he or she might have more than one option.

A euphoric mood prevailed, although InsiderNJ also noticed some stunned looks as certain Democrats tried to ponder a world ruled by Trump. “What are we going to DO?” a frightened face wondered, appearing on the sidewalk, having just fallen out of the side door of a bar. Republicans too threw up their hands for the most part when asked about how Republicans winning the presidential contest earlier this month will impact the unfolding gubernatorial drama. “Who knows with this guy?” a GOP insider said.

For the moment, New Jersey was just delighted to be at the center of attention of its own party, even if no one else attended, except those preoccupied with New Jersey, which made it an especially granular affair as revelers hopped from event to event in human herds that included those competitors determined to put on the antlers of governor.