Like other New Jersey Democrats, former Governor Dick Codey is keenly watching the results in Iowa tonight, but unlike those uncommitted others not yet fastened to a candidate, Codey stands at the vanguard of that small strand of early Joe Biden backers in the Garden State.

“This is about winning,” said Codey, who sees in the former Vice President’s candidacy the enticing possibility of rust belt wins in states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin, where President Donald J. Trump beat Hillary Clinton in 2016.

“He is the best candidate [in those critical general election battleground states],” Codey told InsiderNJ.

But hasn’t he lost a step?

“Unlike Mr. Sanders, he hasn’t had a heart attack,” said Codey. “He doesn’t yell and scream. He doesn’t look like a nutty professor, waving his arms around out there.”

Biden had some solid debates, the Essex County everyman said.

“He’s very likable,” said the veteran Roseland-based Democratic state senator.

Codey knows him.

He remembers Biden once removing his cufflinks and giving them to a Codey staffer who had commented favorably on them.  Biden offers a contrast to the sitting president, whom Codey also knows. “We’ve never had a worse president,” he said, reflecting on those occasions when he spoke with Trump before he beame president.

It was a descent into the world of a total egocentrist, who couldn’t focus on anything other than himsef, Codey recalled.

What offends him most?

“The way he talks to people and treats people,” Codey said of the president.

The New Jersey Democrat sees in Biden a real possibility for contrast on a general election stage with those key states at stake. Unlike Sanders, he said, who has a reputation for not being able to speak to his colleagues and get along with people. Biden occupies the friendly center of the country, which is where most people in America stand, Codey argued. When and if he becomes president, “He will know that his job is not to give tax cuts to the wealthy, and he will restore [the SALT tax deduction],” the former governor said.

As for tonight, Codey said Biden has to do well enough in Iowa to hold his campaign together to secure wins in Nevada and South Carolina.

He will be watching with more than passing interest.