Joe Biden is in New Jersey on Monday to promote universal preschool and groundbreaking for the Portal Bridge, an important step toward a new Hudson River tunnel.

This is an official presidential journey, not a campaign trip.

“Yeah, sure, right,”  observed Bob Hugin, the chair of the state Republican Party.

“Joe Biden is the president of the United States. Phil Murphy is running for reelection,” Hugin added.

So, according to Hugin,  that makes Biden’s visit very much a campaign trip. And as the state chair pointed out, it comes after previous visits by Jill Biden, Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar and just two days ago, Barack Obama. All those trips were designed to hype Democratic turnout.

But Hugin is not upset at all by Democratic bigwigs visiting the Garden State.

He called it a “sign of desperation.”

Talking to reporters in a conference call, Hugin also commented about huge volumes of campaign cash being dumped into New Jersey by the national Democratic and Republican committees. He said this is a testament to the campaign of Jack Ciattarelli, who he said is “doing all the right things.”

Or as he put it, Republicans realize they can win in a blue state and Democrats realize they can lose in a blue state. And in a customary Republican swipe at the press, Hugin said this is happening despite media bias making it hard for the GOP to get its message across.

The last public poll has Murphy up by 6 points. His lead was in double-digits two months ago.

Hugin also framed the race in apocalyptic terms, speaking of unspecified “rumors” of what Murphy will do if he wins reelection.

This trend continued when Hugin said that with Biden in the White House and Murphy continuing as governor, the nation faces an existential threat that he likened to the novel, “1984.”