The diner sat above the highway, next to a sign stuck in the ground that welcomed people to town, as if anyone would seek a destination that gave off all the murky charm of an on-ramp.

There was no downtown.

There was just the enticement to a highway, as if the virtual world now included the absolute demolition of even the pretense of communal congregation around those classic architectural icons of Americana, among them a nondescript bank, church, post office, police station, fire house and privet hedge.

The diner sat in wretched aloneness at the gates of New Jersey nothingness.

The source parked himself on a chair and the waitress asked the reporter if he wanted anything, then slopped the coffee down in front of him with a look of real irritation, as if she had expected him to order a full pancake breakfast.

“It’s 39,” the source said, chewing into an English muffin, the ongoing dreariness of traffic behind him appearing to run through one ear and out the other.

Every statewide election coughs up a contest that one could not foresee, and the source on this occasion maintained that LD39 would be that 2017 surprise.  “Take a look at it,” said the source, as the reporter wearily pressed for some other tidbit but got only a sly look in response.

“39.

“Take a look at it,” he added.

InsiderNJ flagpoled it, going to a Democratic source in Bergen who went on effusively about an opportunity in a year when his party expects Democrat Phil Murphy to bury Republican Kim Guadagno and produce some down-ballot GOP havoc. Bergen Democrats don’t see vulnerability in state Senator Gerald Cardinale (R-39) or Assemblywoman Holly Schepisi (R-39). Although they could do without the headache of rising GOP star Schepisi going countywide next year against incumbent Bergen County Executive Jim Tedesco, which might be the real and unstated heart-palpitating reason why they want to muddy 39, or it could be flutters of worry in the always interesting LD38.

But two sources insist they feel motivated on the merits of boomeranging Assemblyman Robert Auth (R-39), and brand him with the ignominy of being that unforeseen casualty of the 2017 cycle. If she were to produce a victory in a hitherto assumed-safe Republican district, Jannie Chung, a local elected official in Closter, would become the only East Asian serving in the New Jersey Legislature.

Then a third source coughed up the real reason.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the source noted the ongoing leadership war slog between Speaker Vincent Prieto (D-32) and Assemblyman Craig Coughlin (D-19). The Senate Majority and DACC (Democratic Assembly Campaign Committee) are split. Districts 11, 2, 16 went with Mike Muller, the former DACC mind ejected by Prieto.

DACC, now under the leadership of Mark Matzen and controlled by Prieto, has chosen to go after 39, 40, and 25.

Veteran Cardinale, it should be noted, has destroyed his opposition in LD39 by a 2-1 margin going back to his last competitive general election, which was in 1983. Cardinale beat a come-backing former Senator Frank Herbert 51.2-48.8%, a more narrow margin than the pair’s first matchup when the Republican first won the seat in 1981. From 1987 on, Cardinale has consistently racked by comfortable double digit general election victories, suffocating his opponents in cakewalks, in a district where Republicans outnumber Democrats 44,889 to 40,414.