GALLOWAY - The crowd on the carpeted hallway of the Seaview Hotel included James Gannon, sheriff of Morris County, in his element here with other constitutional officers, heavy on clerks. Rounding the corner into the big, well-lit foyer, people amassed around a central, slender, broadly grinning and tanned figure.

It was Jack Ciattarelli, Republican nominee for governor.

"He's going to win," one of his supporters told InsiderNJ, apparently convinced the candidate's strong campaign and communications skills could penetrate the GOP's registration disadvantage.

A Democrat nearby rocked on his heels with eyebrows raised.

The look said: "Don't be so sure."

A day removed from his second debate showdown with rival, Democrat Mikie Sherrill, Ciattarelli took a question about how he intends to win.

"John Donnadio," he cracked, before getting bearhugged by Donnadio, executive director of the New Jersey Association of Counties.

Then the candidate added:

"We're going to give specific proposals on how to fix New Jersey's affordability crisis, the public safety crisis, the education crisis and the overdevelopment of our suburbs. People want to hear specifics and I'm going to give it to them."

Did the campaign go too far by using materials related to Sherrill's graduation from Annapolis, furnished - along with unredacted private records, by the National Archives?

"I think the people of New Jersey deserve transparency," Ciattarelli said.

His whole answer can be heard HERE:

The well-attended, annual convention of the association included a reporter's roundtable panel helmed by Colleen O'Dea of NJ Spotlight News. More than a few people kept an eye on Charlie Stile, the Bergen Record columnist, who did not have occasion to bump into Ciattarelli in the big, spacious environs.

At the last gubernatorial debate, the Republican candidate for governor reminded Stile that he had relegated him to "the penalty box," apparently because the columnist had written some tough columns about Ciattarelli.

There would be no nose-to-nose rematches between the two men here.

The room included Monmouth County Clerk Christine Hanlon, Somerset Clerk Steve Peter, Mercer Clerk Paula Sollami Covello, Hudson Clerk Junior Maldonado, Middlesex County Sherriff Mildred Scott, Essex Clerk Chris Durkin, Monmouth Sherriff Shaun Golden, Hunterdon Clerk Mary Melfi, Hudson County Register Jeff Dublin, Camden County Clerk Pam Lampitt, Essex County Register Juan Rivera, Middlesex Surrogate Claribel Cortes, Middlesex County Clerk Nancy Pinkin, and many others.

The mood everywhere pointed toward a hell-on-wheels statewide election with no one, save the most ardent fans of either candidate, truly certain about what will happen on Nov. 4th.

Clerks delighted in the intrigue.

Two sources told InsiderNJ they saw Ciattarelli's contest with Sherrill as too close to call and described the environment now as more suggestive of the state's 1981 general election nailbiter (Kean: 49.46% to Florio 49.38%) than 2021's much-closer-than-expected finish when Ciattarelli lost to Phil Murphy 48-51%.