You can feel the palpable agony out there among incumbent Democratic legislators every time Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop releases another raft of candidates intended to reinforce his own statewide Democratic Primary candidacy for Governor.

Fulop keeps throwing his legislative district paratroopers into an already volatile political environment, marked by the county chairs playing footsy in the direction of 2025 gubernatorial frontrunner Mikie Sherrill, and legislators toiling on a bipartisan committee with the purpose of making recommendations on the design of ballots used in upcoming primary elections.

Fulop knows his candidates land like human nitroglycerin tablets on a fragile fault line among party bosses trying to assert their influence on the gubernatorial election; a judge’s ruling requiring new ballots that expunge boss-designed ballots, thereby minimizing the bosses’ influence; and the lawmakers themselves, long aided by “the party line” on the ballot, which gives a huge leg-up to establishment-backed candidates.

“It’s a complicated situation,” affirmed Assemblyman Benjie Wimberly (D-35), co-chair of the Assembly Ballot Design Committee, which has one more meeting on the calendar early next month before it presents its official findings. “One thing I’ve taken from the hearings is that we do need to find ways to increase voter turnout among younger folks. We have to ensure we are not disenfranchising people, and as it stands [with the ballot designs], my biggest concern is turning people off to the process.”

Added the longtime football and baseball coach and Paterson Recreation Department director, “I’ve spent my career working with young people, and since I’ve been more involved with the party, I’ve noticed less participation.”

What can be done about it?

It’s not immediately clear, as other considerations of a self-protective variety dominate backroom discussions.

Eyeing reelection next year and worried about the impact of unsettled gubernatorial drama on new ballots, some lawmakers might favor separate boxes, so they don’t get tethered to a misfiring gubernatorial candidacy at the top of the ticket. Strong incumbents probably wants something like that, whereby they can depend on their own names instead of someone else’s brand.

“That would be ideal,” Wimberly told InsiderNJ.

Others used to the protection of party lines likely worry about such a configuration and want essentially a status quo ballot.

“I don’t know what the judge is thinking,” the assemblyman added. “Also, remember, the [state] senate will have a say on the ballot design. They’re not just going to take our recommendation and say, ‘Thank you.’ They will have their own input, presumably, and to date I haven’t heard anything from them. O have relationships with quite a few of them, and I’m optimistic that we’ll do what’s best.”

Wimberly occupies a fascinating position in the drama, not only co-chairing the ballot design

committee, but running in a special election for the state senate seat occupied by U.S. Rep.-elect Nellie Pou (D-9).

Wimberly is vying for the seat with his longtime slate mate, Assemblywoman Shavonda Sumter (D-35), who is particularly close to Passaic County Democratic Committee Chairman John Currie.

If Currie and the committee cut a deal with Bergen and back Sumter, and support (as right now looks likely) Sherrill for governor, might Wimberly

summon Bergen support and throw his own backing to Bergen-backed gubernatorial candidate U.S. Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-5)?

It’s strictly hypothetical right now.

The CD-9 joint committee does not even have a yet set at this moment to consider a replacement for Pou.

But it’s volatile.

Wimberly wants to keep all his options open at this time.

“Not at all,” he said in understandable answer to the question of whether or not he has a candidate for governor. “Ideally, I would have been on board at this point with whom the party backs. But I have to keep them all in consideration right now and not commit to anybody. I’ve met with all of them and I can’t walk away from any of those meetings saying, “This is someone I definitely will or will not support.’ I’ve got to be in a position where I consider my own future.”

As lawmakers headed into their Thanksgiving holiday this week, more than a few of them braced for the next Fulop dropkick to the establishment – or the sudden decision by another candidate for governor to unleash his or her own stable of legislative challengers in yet another destabilizing gesture on the eve of a presumably otherwise peaceful holiday. At the very least, an insider said of the Jersey City mayor’s upstart – and organized – anti-establishment candidacy, “Don’t go to sleep on him.”