They need to fill former Assemblywoman Nancy Pinkin’s LD18 seat, in what adds up to a test of Middlesex County democratic Committee Chairman Kevin McCabe’s strength in the sprawling, nondescript county with plenty of ragged working class immigrant edges.

Pinkin left the assembly to become the county clerk over there and now the party organization appears to have circled up around East Brunswick Council President Sterley Stanley ahead of a scheduled Jan. 12th convention.

Presumably South Plainfield – helmed by local towering figure state Senator Patrick Diegnan (D-18) will back the party’s choice, but sources say Stanway may not be able to tiptoe through without arousing the district’s 800 pound gorilla otherwise known as Edison.

Stanley, who is South Asian American (but not from Edison), made the rounds this week, and left a trail of mild grumbling in Edison, home to roughly 150 committee votes out of 350 – enough to tickle the political fancy of local heavyweight, two-time Councilman Joe Coyle.

Coyle has to be looking at the raw numbers and salivating a little.

East Brunswick only has 70 committee votes.

Then again, as mentioned at the outset, the county party organization will lean into this for party guy Stanway, in part alert to an imbalance if Coyle joins to other white males (Diegnan and Assemblyman Rob Karabinchak) to represent a district losing Pinkin, which numbers 15,693 South Asians, second only to Northern European Americans at just over 20K).

But the fact that the party didn’t recruit a woman created its own wrinkle of bewilderment over Stanley.

Will it be enough to catapult an Edison-galvanized Coyle?

“He’s going,” a source assured InsiderNJ last night.

A second source said Coyle’s going and Edison is likely to unite behind him, in part to get him out of the way as a mayoral candidate.

“He has a very good shot if most of Edison sticks with him,” the source said of Coyle.

Tonight, Coyle did formally declare his interest in the LD18 seat vacated by Pinkin, and will head into next week’s convention to contend for the seat against Stanley.

Thus, tonight’s InsiderNJ Poll question: