ATLANTIC CITY – A roar went up from the Somerset County corner of the Avalon Ballroom.

Democratic State Party Vice Chair Peg Schaffer had arrived.

She’s the chair of the Somerset County Democratic Committee.

They’ve got a control election up there this year and there was some mild off the record hand-wringing about here presence down there.

Is she worried Republicans will overrun her county in her absence?

“I brought them down here with me,”” Schaffer – partying with East Windsor (and Mercer County Democratic Committee Chair) Mayor Janice Mironov – joked.

Schaffer took a crack at the mic amid the typical static about how no one was here.

Those allies of South Jersey Democrats bad mouthed this event all week.

“No one’s going,” a source said.

Then there was the source pounding the carpet here.

“They were ordered not to come,” he said, referring to South Jersey Dems and their ilk.