PARSIPPANY – Close to a hundred Morris County Democrats ate a buffet lunch and waited in the township library for the fun to start. That was a rally headed by Governor Murphy and Sen. Robert Menendez.

The senator got there first and as the crowd surrounded him, one woman said, “You’re going to get more votes here than ever before.”

Yes, Morris County Dems are all hyped up, exhibiting heretofore unseen energy. Murphy when he got there praised the county’s transformation and said he considered it a “purple” county.

Republicans, however, are just as convinced that the ethically-challenged Menendez will be a drag on the Democratic ticket throughout the county or even state.

In fact, one man on the outer fringes of the scrum around Menendez admitted he would vote for the senator, but “hold his nose” as he does so.

There you have it.

Call it a Tale of Two Cities, or rather a Tale of Two Voters.

The key question of course is how many people who normally vote Democratc will forget about holding their nose and just vote for Republican Bob Hugin.

Hoping to avoid that, Menendez gave his usual stump speech, stressing over and over the importance of electing a Senate and a Congress that will stand up to, or rather stop, Donald Trump’s agenda. Both Murphy and Menendez referred to Saturday’s mass shooting at a synagogue in Pittsburgh.

“When they attack Jews in Pittsburgh, they attack Jews in New Jersey,” the governor said.

Without directly blaming him, both Murphy and Menendez said the president can not avoid responsibility for a rise in anti-Semitic acts and other expressions of bigotry.

The governor said many hate groups think they have a “permission slip” from the White House.

Menendez said Trump cannot create what he said is a “toxic environment” and walk away from any responsibility for hateful acts.

The senator also said he’s tired of talk about “thoughts and prayers” and called again for better gun control laws.

In a crowd of local Dems. no one disagreed.

But with an eye toward Nov. 6, Chip Robinson, the county’s Democratic chair, urged supporters to play a little hooky.

He said he’s taking off from work on Monday and Tuesday of election day week (Robinson is a lawyer with a Hackensack firm) and that he wants loyal Democrats to do the same and help with voter turnout.

He didn’t say if he’d write them a note.