GALLOWAY – Atlantic City Mayor Marty Small could be observed at a table in an antechamber adjacent to the packed main ballroom and InsiderNJ asked him what was going on.

He smiled.

“I’m focused on March 31st,” he said, referring to the date set for a referendum on Atlantic City’s form of government.

Small and his local rivals are joining forces in time to put down – they hope – the measure that would change the type of government in their city to a city manager.

Once they put down the referendum they will split and go against each other as Small seeks reelection for the seat he won when his predecessor, Frank Gilliam, imploded in a corruption scandal.

Small at one point paced across the big room here drawing glances and comments.

“He’s stayed out of it publicly,” someone said, referring to the event of the afternoon: the CD2 Democratic Primary battle mostly pitting mental health professional Amy Kennedy against Montclair University Political Science Professor Brigid Harrison.

A seemingly interminable line-up of candidates for other offices took the stage, one after another, in advance of the featured event.

“It’s going to be a long afternoon,” someone muttered.

The contest seesawed.

Kennedy up 20.

No.

Now Harrison up by half a dozen, a source insisted.

No one denied the contest was close.

But it proved not to be in the end, as Kennedy won in a landslide.