Every election cycle summons a new protagonist who jogs the collective imagination of the party* (please see editor’s note, below), and this time, that title belongs indisputably to CD-11 contender Mikie Sherrill, whom Democrats already see as a future contender for governor. Sherrill has to get past Republican Jay Webber first in a district long ruled by Republicans, of course, but if she does in this volatile year, Democrats continue to talk about her as a statewide option.

“I love Mikie,” a Democrat told InsiderNJ early today. “Everything else in the party is stale.

“Except Mikie,” the source insisted.

Part of Sherrill’s drawing power hinges on how apparently different the former prosecutor and Sea King helicopter pilot is from the existing Democratic establishment, an outsider in the ultimate political outsider atmosphere who in the preliminary phase of her congressional run cleared the field of male elected officials to secure the support of those male unelected officials who run the party.

“Mikie’s classically feminine, but she can kick the ass of all these guys, too – they know that – here’s a helicopter pilot who transported Marines – and that makes her appealing as a candidate,” one weary, otherwise thoroughly discouraged party veteran confessed.

Amid ongoing Murphy v. Sweeney/John Currie v. South Jersey bifurcations in the party, redistricting power politics and in the middle of an Atlantic City versus Camden taffy pull this very week, the talk up north now runs as follows:

If Governor Phil Murphy goes to a Democratic Administration on the heels of a 2020 Dems win, North Jersey will need another candidate to stare down Senate President Steve Sweeney (D-3).  Late 2016 saw North Jersey party chairs circle around Murphy 2017 to prevent a Sweeney North Jersey encroachment. If Murphy leaves prior to reelection, they’ll need a replacement. That’s Sherrill, according to most North Jersey sources who see her potential to scare away the usual brands that rattle in the vicinity of a statewide run.

“She’s the only one,” said a power player, having himself closed the door on past options like Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop.

Plus, party sources see her as too valuable to risk keeping her on the ground in CD-11, classically a Republican district, which would conceivably stand a strong chance of swinging back to the GOP in a year in which President Donald J. Trump doesn’t infuriate the New Jersey electorate.

“She’s got to run for governor,” the source told InsiderNJ. “We’ve got to begin grooming her now for a statewide statement.”

Of course, Sherrill could lose to the skillful Assemblyman Jay Webber (R-26), the GOP nominee in CD-11.

Moreover, Trump could win reelection and, consequently, Murphy could end up running for reelection.

Still, part of the way the sitting governor’s allies pitch the virtues of the Democratic State Committee conference this week is by frontend-loading the progressive connective tissue of Murphy and 2020 presidential contender U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) (both on the program at Harrah’s) to the Democrats’ national mood. To the extent that Murphy stays glued to Booker and Booker stays the course for president, an incipient statewide Sherrill in the aftermath emboldens those Democratic Party leaders who initially got behind Murphy to chop block Sweeney.

Murphy’s minders don’t want their man to end up irretrievably stuck to Booker, though, in the event another national contender for the presidency edges the junior Senator from New Jersey and Corzines the New Jersey Governor. In 2008, then-Governor Jon Corzine, already fitting the drapes on a Treasury Secretary post in a Hillary Clinton Administration, found himself capsized into a doomed reelection bid when Barack Obama defeated Corzine’s presidential choice and left him shivering on the outside of the new regime.

But even as Camden shines the klieg lights on former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who has his own presidential aspirations, the Booker-Murphy-Sherrill triumvirate has more than wadded-up connotations in the volatile unfolding of this political season. There is also a small but dedicated wing of the party that continues to see – on the strength of his fundraising and the playbook he put together on how to truncate the oxygen of Republicans in a district long viewed as virtually unwinnable by Democrats – U.S. Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-5) as another obvious statewide option. If Sherrill loses but impresses, she could – again, given the divisions in the party – arguably emerge as a North Jersey-political-interest-protecting state party chair to succeed Currie.

*Editor’s Note: An original headline and first graph of this story contained a reference to Sherrill as a ‘shiny new object’ candidate, a term that – I think – describes an emergent and new candidacy in any given election cycle. President Barack Obama employed this term “bright shiny object,” for example, to describe the 2016 presidential candidacy of Bernie Sanders. I used it here imprecisely and regrettably and did not intend to offend anyone, but I have heard the just criticisms online and this evening changed the piece in an effort to better express the intent of the headline and of the piece that I wrote. I am sorry for any offense caused; never my intention. I certainly take responsibility for imprecision of language, never a journalistic virtue. Max Pizarro, editor, InsiderNJ. 

• One more note. In the headline I also changed “giddy” to “intrigued,” again, in the name of a more precise reflection of what I mean.