WOOD-RIDGE – The suburban scrum of southwest Bergen forms the baseball diamond-firehouse-police-building-trades-nurses-educators-bar and barbecue pit of a Jersey existence probably best embodied in politics by state Senator Paul Sarlo (D-36), the long-serving chairman of the Senate Budget Committee.

Now, as Kamala Harris tries to wrench Democratic Party-skeptical so-called Reagan Democrats back into the party column with less than two weeks to go before Nov. 5th, Election Day, Sarlo – the old ball player with a son at the Naval Academy – wants to remind voters about the importance of ensuring a Donald Trump defeat.

His district will go Democratic in the election, ensured by the Passaic portion of the district and points, but Southwest Bergen went from Trump in 2020 over Joe Biden, so Democrats look to some cross-ticket volatility in that dedicated blue collar portion of Sarlo’s sprawling backyard.

“The South Bergen portion is a predominantly Reagan Democrat, trade voter with good income – police, fire, carpenter, teacher, and these are the people from whom I have been blessed and humbled to receive support,” the moderate Democratic stalwart told InsiderNJ on his home turf.  “Yes, you are seeing some of those people getting peeled off by the MAGA movement. Some of them feel like the Democratic Party has left them out.”

Skeptics chilled by the cumulative effects of the recession, COVID and inflation don’t feel national Democrats sufficiently delivering. In addition, they feel some level of cynicism about politicians and the canned slogans favored by establishment types, and that puts it mildly.

An engineer by trade who employs 400 employees, 300 of whom are building trades, all the beneficiaries of Biden Administration that invested over $400 billion in Building Trades projects that will give them at least ten years of work, Sarlo prioritizes how to turn a profit while supporting organized labor.

The inveterate pragmatist persists in making his argument as his party barrels toward Decision Day.

“I say this to my friends – we go to the local sports bars to watch the Mets and Yankees, and these are guys I’ve grown up with, and played ball with,” said the senator. “When they’re at the football game in Park Tavern or Biggie’s Sports Bar or in the backyard, it’s cool to them to beat their chests and say, ‘I’m with Donald Trump. It’s a macho thing. But I’m hopeful that when they go home and when they’re with their wives and children and they see what’s going on and they see this nasty, unhinged, and erratic guy, they say, ‘I can’t subject my wife and kids to this for another four years.’ I am confident I am hopeful as much as they think it’s cool and macho over beer at the sports bar or at work on coffee break, that they think to themselves, ‘I don’t want my kids to act this way when they go to school.’  They don’t want to treat people like that.”

But why does anyone feel any connection or any sensation of manly association – with a lunatic flailing at a podium?

Sarlo explains Trump’s hateful rhetoric as his own “way of saying the Democratic Party has left the working man behind and it’s time to fight back.”

“The media focuses on extreme things, but people have a tendency here to go back to their corners and be practical,” said the senator. “I am the mainstream moderate with a history of convincing my fellow elected officials to just move a little bit more to the center to reach consensus.”

Sarlo works with liberals and conservatives, to achieve policy victories on issues like the millionaire’s tax, which contained sunset provisions thanks to his negotiating input. “When you look at the cost of living in New Jersey, and home costs, ‘millionaire’ can be a bit of a misnomer, but in a revenue crisis, yes, we need revenue for the safety net programs – but let’s not just tax the rich because we feel like taxing the rich.”

Sarlo also routinely works to limit the amount of public funding for pet programs and prevent some of his more liberal colleagues from opening the floodgates.

He voted against marijuana legalization because he did not believe it contained enough protections for employees and employers. He “evolved” on gay marriage.

Sarlo laments voters falling prey to Trump’s supposed pro law and order rhetoric, noting the mayhem the Republican spurred on Jan. 6th, 2021, and his terrible labor record. If Trump could cancel police pensions tomorrow and put a dollar in his pocket, he would.

“Trump captured a handful of outlandish proposals by left-wing liberals – not even elected officials – and he did an amazing job of taking that and running with it to scare white suburban male voters,” he said. “When you actually sit and explain it to someone and ask, ‘Show me where we have ever defunded the police,’ of course, they can’t. The reality is I always need more money. We always need to do better and that [defunding the police] would never happen but it scares people.”

The proud son of a Korean War veteran whose portrait graces his office, Sarlo also objects to Trump’s phony attempts to present himself as pro-military. He says, “The role of our military – the strongest military in the world – is to protect our democracy and we have allies in democratic countries that depend on us, yes, whether you like it or not, democratic countries that we – our ships and our bases – protect from bullies” in the interest of our national security and our democratic institutions.