First elected in 1999, Atlantic County Executive Dennis Levinson is the longest-serving of New Jersey’s county executives, and is up for reelection next year.

In Essex, Joe DiVincenzo was first elected in 2002, and is running for reelection this year.

Hudson County Executive Tom DeGise won a special election in 2002 to first nab the position, and is up for reelection next year.

In Mercer, Brian Hughes was first elected in 2003.

In Bergen, Jim Tedesco won his command chair in 2014, and is running for reelection this year.

Around this time ahead of each of Levinson’s reelection bids (at least going back to 2007, when Jim McGettigan ended up facing him and losing in the same election cycle that produced the late Jim Whelan’s LD2 Senate win) the buzz starts about how “Denny” might not run again.

He always does.

One person now sizing up the landscape around Levinson at this stage of the game is Assemblyman Vince Mazzeo (D-2), who could take a crack at the Republican veteran, sources say, or run for the seat in the event that Levinson retires.

On the Republican side, politics watchers see Freeholder Chairman Frank Formica as a most likely successor. But there are others. If Hirsh Singh of Linwood fails in his CD2 bid this year, might he resurface as a countywide candidate? Former FBI guy James “Turk” Turkavage of Brigantine likewise does not appear eager to disappear. There’s also Levinson’s son, Matthew, the former chairman of the Casino Control Commission, and former Assemblyman Vince Polistina (R-2).

Hudson might not be the only volatile county around the goings-on of a county executive position, but it’s still, of course, early.