Something politically historic is afoot in Morris County - A Democrat may win a state Assembly seat.

The candidate's name is Marisa Sweeney and as of Wednesday afternoon, she was in line to grab the second Assembly seat in LD-25 covering 18 towns in Morris and one, West Milfiord, in Passaic.

Incumbent Republican Aura Dunn was in first place with 48,061 votes. Sweeney, a registered dietitian nutritionist and founder of Be Well Integrative Health Services, was in second with 47,718.

That was better than incumbent Republican Christian Barranco who had 47,147 votes. Democrat Steve Pylypchuk was fourth with 45,574.

You have to go back to the Watergate era to find a Democrat representing a mostly Morris County Assembly district, although Democrat Gordon MacInnes did win the district's Senate seat in 1993. He lost it four years later.

Mikie Sherrill, whose congressional district overlaps with most of LD-25, clearly helped. Sherrill won the county by almost 2,000 votes.

In getting to a winning position, Sweeney overcame a more than 2,000-vote deficit in conservative West Milford.

In all, Democrats are in line to pick up five Assembly seats, which would give them 57 - out of 80 - in the lower house.

We don't really want to kick a man when he is down, but one can't forget that over and over again, Jack Ciattarelli on the campaign trail boldly talked about Republicans winning 13 seats and gaining control of the Assembly.

His point was that Republicans had energy "off the charts" and the wind at their back.

Not really.