A raucous CWA atmosphere has enclosed Senate President Steve Sweeney at his town hall events, including one he had earlier this week in Camden County.

But when he got to the one he held last night in Essex – that county he needed in 2017 to get governor – a mostly empty room awaited.

Was something amiss?

Was it a trap?

“You should have seen last night,” Sweeney told InsiderNJ, almost disappointed to find the opposite of circus-like sawdust in this, the district of the man he displaced to win the senate presidency, former Governor (and sitting Senator) Dick Codey.

Things got settled.

Then the door (doors?) swung in the back.

It was Codey, who walked in like Wild Bill Hickok, in other words, quietly, as if nothing were amiss in a lonely, dusty saloon with Sweeney and state Senator Steve Oroho (R-24) on the other side of the room.

So this was the welcome party.

No cowboys looking and sounding like they were going to drag a baby grand piano up the stairs on horseback or yank the chandeliers down from the ceiling.

Just Codey, channeling Will Kane.

A lone guy, minus the boots.

The sheriff of the district himself.

It was interesting.

One woman went to the microphone and upbraided Sweeney and Oroho.

But otherwise the flat calm of a dreary pool hall pervaded the entire event.

InsiderNJ wrote a piece while the event unfolded referring to Codey as “placid,” and before leaving said hello to the former governor who grinned back.

“I’m not placid,” he said.