When Chris Christie left the cloistered world of Morris County politics more than 20 years ago, he was a defeated candidate for renomination as freeholder – his second primary defeat in three years.

Now he’s coming back to the nitty-gritty of county politics as a unifying figure.

The former governor will be the “special guest” at a July 17 unity breakfast sponsored by the Morris County Republican Committee.

Few can quibble with the need for unity.

With Democrats becoming more energized and presumably competitive, Morris Republicans just went through a bruising battle for chairman, a race that Ron DeFilippis won by four votes over Robert Zwigard.

The committee announced the unity breakfast, which will take place at the Zeris Inn in Mountain Lakes, last week. Christie’s scheduled appearance was announced Tuesday evening.

Generally, these events are a time for both sides to talk about forgetting the recent past and concentrating on winning elections in November.

Interestingly, back about a hundred years ago (a slight exaggeration) I recall Christie himself talking about a unity gathering of sorts after he (Christie) was nominated for freeholder in the 1994 primary.

That election prompted a lawsuit and a host of bad feelings.

As Christie related the story years ago, it was then Rep. Dean A. Gallo who told the crowd that the young Christie represented the future of the party. Gallo, who soon thereafter was to pass away from cancer, was well-respected and many probably took his words to heart.

Now, it may be Christie’s time to adopt the role of the party’s wise elder statesman.

But of course there’s a bit more to this story.

The invitation to the event includes 11 sponsors.

The sponsors include five of the six state legislators representing Morris County’s two main districts – the 25th and 26th.

Who is missing?

That would be Assemblyman Jay Webber of District 26, who also happens to be the GOP candidate for Congress in District 11. Webber just won a hard-fought primary of his own, but his name was conspicuously missing from the list of sponsors.

That could have been just an oversight.

Or this unity thing may be harder than it seems.