Two of the five Republicans seeking the party’s congressional nomination in the 11th District lashed out this week at New Jersey Democrats.

That may sound like normal behavior, but then again, the men are running for federal, not state, office. Moreover, neither is running against Phil Murphy, or for that matter, any Democrat at all. Not yet at least. Right now, they are running against each other in the June Republican primary.

But such practical concerns did not deter Jay Webber and Peter DeNeufville from attacking the Democrats.

Webber wrote a Facebook post on Monday taking credit for defending what he called a simple belief. And that is that, “citizens of the United States should be treated as well or better than non-citizens who happen to be in our country.”

He was objecting to Democratic support of a policy change to make New Jersey college students in the country illegally eligible for state tuition aid. Under the Christie Administration, these students were eligible for in-state tuition rates at state colleges, but not for state grants. Murphy has changed that.

The next day, DeNeufville said in a release that he was challenging Murphy to make good  “on his threat to campaign on behalf of Democrat candidates throughout New Jersey and to defend the Democrats’ shared policies on making New Jersey a sanctuary state, raising taxes and increasing the minimum wage to $15 per hour.”

DeNeufville suggested that the governor visit Denville, Sparta, Wayne and West Caldwell in the heart of the 11th District and make the case for what he called his “extreme liberal policies.”

There is, of course, a reason why Republicans are attacking a man and administration they are not running against. And it has to do with energizing the Republican base. Sometimes, the best way to excite dedicated GOP primary voters, who tend to be more conservative than the rest of the party, is to denounce the enemy as much as possible. And Democrats, who control the levers of power in the state, are certainly the enemy.

Don’t be surprised to see these attacks against the Democrats to continue. The congressional candidate whose condemnations of the Dems comes across as the most colorful and acerbic may pick-up a few extra votes.

And there is still ample time – about six weeks – for the Republicans to get around to attacking each other.