MORRIS TOWNSHIP - Jack Ciattarelli has been doing this for a long time.

He lost the 2021 race, and never stopped running. So, it's been a four-year marathon of a campaign kickoff in Monmouth, a holiday party in Gloucester, a fundraiser in Bergen and all sorts of stuff in between.
Now there's only two days to go and Ciattarelli began this last Sunday of the campaign before 9 a.m. at an annual breakfast held by Ann Grossi, the Morris County clerk.

"I can't believe it's almost over," he said. "Call me crazy, but I love the grind - and I'm going to love beating Mikie Sherrill."

There you have it.

First, a tribute to the rat race of a campaign - and then, a confident statement about what will happen Tuesday night.

As noted, Ciattarelli often comes to Morris, but this is home for LG candidate James Gannon, the local sheriff.

Ciattarelli had warm praise for Gannon, saying of those who has met during the campaign.

"They have fallen in love with Jimmy Gannon everywhere he has gone."

The Morris breakfast, which drew about 200, came about 12 hours after Barack Obama campaigned for Sherrill in Newark.

Jack was paying attention.

He said people have asked him who's going to campaign for him in the waning days of the campaign.

His answer:

"I'm going to bring in Jack Ciattarelli."

He often has said that he thinks it's the candidate who wins elections in New Jersey, not campaign surrogates.

One of Ciattarelli's favorite campaign jokes is to make fun of Sherrill's constant criticism of Donald Trump.

He likes to say to the crowd that, "If you get a flat tire on the way home, it's Donald Trump's fault."

Surprisingly, at the Saturday rally, Obama was talking about flat tires too. Really.

Turning the joke around, he said a MAGA supporter getting a flat tire would blame DEI.

If there's a lesson here, it's that flat tires are truly a bipartisan pain.