The general election for the senate seat in LD11 started early today as Democrats laid siege to the district office of incumbent state Senator Jennifer Beck (R-Red Bank) to protest her vote on an override of Gov. Chris Christie’s veto on pay equity.

Beck last year voted against the override and took pains to explain why. The veteran Senator from Monmouth County told NJ.com that “there were elements of the pay equity bill that were, to her, ‘untenable,’ particularly its lack of a tax shelter for back pay awarded to those who’d suffered wage discrimination. She said she’d introduce a compromise bill that protected such awards from taxation, ‘so you don’t end up paying the award to the tax man.'”

Now Beck faces a challenge from Vin Gopal of Long Branch, the former chairman of the Monmouth County Democratic Committee, whose backers hope he can displace Beck in this year’s general election. Most insiders see the 11th as a battleground, based on Democrats’ overwhelming spending in 2015, which resulted in the bounce-out of Beck’s two running mates.