PATERSON – Against the backdrop of an opioid press conference and in the aftermath of a weekend plug pull on Adam Alonso's ambitions to be Bergen County Democratic Committee Chairman, the insider parking lot assessment of Governor Phil Murphy’s political skills wasn’t good.

Fashionably late to the event, U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) gave North Jersey’s political intelligentsia – such as it is – a chance to chew over Alonso’s Bergen County Party remains.

“This is a guy [Murphy], who had two years to build political relationships in Bergen, and he just blew them up on a Friday evening with this thing with Alonso,” complained a source, speaking on condition of anonymity amid the St. Joseph’s Hospital smocks and stethoscopes.

Insiders appeared eager to gloat over a “not ready for prime time” storyline as they tried to ascertain what would give the Governor – or his allies – the idea that he could airlift in Alonso to supplant an up-from-his-bootstraps (presumably retiring) veteran like Sitting Bergen County Democratic Chairman Lou Stellato.

The press was even less sympathetic, voicing their own gripes as reports about the proximity of Booker’s SUV circulated.

“No press conference,” a reporter grunted, pivoting to Murphy’s availability or lack thereof when asked about the Bergen chair’s fiasco.

Murphy has been in since January and has yet to hold a formal press conference.

“I’m ticked,” the reported confessed, with near wit’s end bluntness.

Everyone else was talking about Bergen.

“Dumbest thing I’ve ever seen,” an insider grinned, eager to reinstall a favorite narrative prior to getting run over by Team Murphy in the pre primary season back in 2017: Murphy’s going nowhere fast. It didn’t matter that Murphy won the governorship, the source seemed to be saying, trying to bend history back to that point on the continuum when he called out Murphy’s inner political circle as the Democratic Party’s B Team.

There was general acknowledgement of a win for Senate President Steve Sweeney (D-3), Murphy’s rival, who himself looked willing to keep operating as if Murphy’s 2017 victory never happened; the entire crucible of Trenton politics merely offering an opportunity to run circles around Murphy ahead of 2021. The Alonso storyline stung as evidence of Murphy irritating Bergen, the crux of his base.

Then Booker pulled in and the press conference started.