Kip Bateman.

It’s one of those names that stands almost unimpeachably in the public square of New Jersey, and now the Central Jersey Senator finds himself in a districtwide dogfight, the pillars of his own and his family’s legacy of gentlemanly forbearance, environmental protection, Millicent Fenwick-infused equality for women, same-sex marriage toleration, and fiscal conservativism dangerously saddled by the twin shrieking, flapping albatrosses of Chris Christie and Donald J. Trump.

Bateman thinks he’s done enough to grind through the maelstrom of contemporary Republican weirdness, the residue of Christie combined with the gravel and cow dung snow blow of Trump’s twitter feed and a gubernatorial candidacy by Republican Kim Guadagno consistently in double digit arears to Democrat Phil Murphy.

But he’s not taking any chances. $148K raised. $55.5K cash on hand. That’s just his, not his running mates’ and his, account. TV this week, radio next. Aggressive mail. And then ride the wheel of fortune of Election Day. His opponent, Laurie Poppe, is a political neophyte, but in there dutifully taking cuts with the bat for the Dems.

Bateman told InsiderNJ this morning that he’s bucked up a little by Murphy’s candidacy, which Bateman sees as having stumbled sufficiently to stir Republicans as the veteran senator goes from event to event.

“First of all, he has made some mistakes, and he’s been almost arrogant in his declaration that he plans to  raise taxes,” Bateman said. “He’s been trying to backpedal from that, because people don’t want to hear it, of course. I would not say I would raise taxes. Then when he goes off script he says things that are not too sensible. I think it’s helping. I do think the governor’s race is narrowing.”

But as Murphy gatling guns out another ad reminding voters about Christie and Bridgegate and Trump scraps with Republican Vietnam war hero Senator John McCain, Bateman points to his own record.

“I’m an independent thinker and a moderate, and I’ve crossed party lines numerous times,” he said. “I’m not afraid to go against the governor, which is why you see my support from independents, women’s groups, and environmental groups. I’m one of the greenest senators in the state and I’m proud of that. One party doesn’t have all the answers.

He’s also business-friendly.

The NJ Sierra Club, NJ Food Committee for Good Government, Planned Parenthood Action Fund, NJ League of Conservation Voters, National Federation of Independent Businesses, New Jersey Fraternal Order of Police, and the Police Benevolent Association (PBA) al endorsed Bateman.

Democrats are shoveling money in ($508K total among their three candidates; $37.6K closing balance, according to ELEC), eager to follow up on that gain of one in 2015 when Assemblyman Andrew Zwicker (D-16) picked off Bateman’s Republican running mate, Donna Simon, who’s trying to claw back into Trenton now even as Dems love the fact that there’s a mayoral contest in Democrat-heavy South Brunswick and Zwicker – a plasma physicist – walks around like Mick Jagger in the Princetons.

Simon will have to drive up GOP turnout in Hunterdon, which slept two tears ago and allowed Zwicker to back door her.

Bateman told InsiderNJ he’s focused on building good relations with the Democrats in South Brunswick, where all the candidates appeared last night at an exceedingly civil forum. The senator said he’s worked on their issues, including the compressor station, Route 1, and affordable housing.

He’s working hard. Still, a lot depends on the top of the ticket and other externals. If Guadagno can pull Murphy into single digits, it obviously helps Bateman, who likes his chances anyway, having worked, on the heels of his late father, a state senate president, an implacable Bateman brand.