Moment to moment the power shifted.

Fighting for his political life, his caucus chewed to pieces, state Senate President Steve Sweeney (D-3) appeared headed for defeat.

He was down by 2,000 votes with most counted.

State Senator Vin Gopal was down by 500 in LD11.

Assemblyman Andrew Zwicker (D-16) was down to former Congressman Mike Pappas in LD16, in a district where the organization spent a total of $60,000 in Somerset – Ciattarelli’s home county.

It was a resounding Republican night, and Sweeney losing represented a major event in the back rooms of Trenton – a giant shift of power.

Talks were underway in the party with the North Jersey quad examining the possibility of state Senator Paul Sarlo (D-36) taking on the role of senate president.

It was volatile.

If Speaker Craig Coughlin (D-19) remained on the assembly throne, the opportunity existed for North Jersey (Hudson, Bergen, Passaic, Essex) to move on the senate presidency in the name of maintaining a balance of power.

That said, a party long conditioned to take orders from South Jersey stepped gingerly around the edges of South Jersey ruination, and did not want to poke a wounded bully in the eye.

A source mulled over the prospect of Sweeney and Governor Phil Murphy, long antagonistic toward each other, finishing each other off and lying on the same funeral pyre of the Democratic Party of the 2021 election cycle.

“If that isn’t a Greek tragedy,” the source croaked.

But it appeared that in the House of Atreus last scene of this drama, Murphy would somehow emerge from the wreckage as a very wounded survivor, while Sweeney would perish – but dangerously hang around with a very clear sense of whom to blame.

The party was already fearing how Sweeney’s loss would rise with a vengeance against the governor, with all those fragile little pre-election deals made on both sides for the sake of self preservation suddenly activated and the hounds of hell pawing at the turf now on the other side, ready to get unleashed on Murphy and his minions.

More later.