MANCHESTER TWP. – It was Bill Spadea’s night – the kickoff to his 2025 gubernatorial campaign.

But the most prescient comment of the evening came from George Gilmore, the Ocean County Republican chair.

Gilmore began by boasting that Ocean is the “reddest” county in New Jersey. (Maybe, he’s never visited Sussex County).

But back to the narrative, Gilmore’s point was Ocean’s oversized influence in state Republican politics.

“We supported Curtis Bashaw,” Gilmore told a few hundred people in the Whiting Firehouse.

Bashaw, of course, won this month’s U.S. Senate primary, besting Christine Serrano Glassner, who was endorsed by Donald Trump.

And now Gilmore is on Spadea’s team. The chairman said he has been talking to Spadea for more than a year about running for governor and now, it’s finally happening.

Clearly, Ocean can give Spadea a boost, which was exactly Gilmore’s point.

Others in the GOP race so far include Jon Bramnick, Ed Durr and Jack Ciattarelli.

But it’s Ciattarelli, the party’s 2021 gubernatorial candidate, who Spadea already is attacking.

When Spadea mentioned Ciattarelli Tuesday night, the crowd booed and one guy yelled, “he sucks.” As we know, politics is now a blood sport.

Ciattarelli is firing back with a video that highlights negative comments Spadea has made about Republicans.

Spadea, of course, on his radio show and in public appearances, makes many critical comments about Republicans.

That’s his main point – the state’s Republican establishment is too willing to cooperate with Democrats, as opposed to fighting for conservative principles, or what Spadea calls “common sense.”

The points Spadea made in his kickoff address are similar to what he says on his radio show.

He wants to crack down on “illegal aliens” and crime by doing away with “bail reform.”

People relocating from New Jersey to Florida and other warm-weather states has been occurring for generations, but many Republicans see this as a political issue.

Spadea says it’s happening because people are suffering under “Incompetent and insufferable government.”

His “common sense” approach to change that includes school funding reform and a return to traditional education standards.

The candidate says he is “unabashedly conservative,” and also unabashedly pro-Trump. Along those lines, this was very much a MAGA-crowd with many in the crowd wearing Trump hats or T-shirts.

All well and good, but how all this impacts next year’s election remains to be seen.

By the time the 2025 gubernatorial election comes around, Trump will either be in the White House or a two-time presidential loser.