MORRISTOWN - Mikie Sherrill resigned her seat in Congress soon after winning the race for governor.

That means her CD-11 seat is vacant. Which also means that the only House member representing any part of Morris County is Thomas H. Kean Jr., whose Seventh District covers 12 towns in the western part of the county.

The general public may not realize that, but the Morris County Commissioners do.

That's why Kean was a busy man Friday evening, swearing in three different officials at the commissioners' reorganization meeting.

"You are our only resource in Washington D.C. right now," said Christine Myers, one of those taking the oath.

Reelected Commissioner Douglas Cabana, the board's most senior member, made similar comments.

Also sworn in as the commission's deputy director was John Krickus.

After Kean did the honors, Krickus congratulated the congressman for voting to raise the federal tax deduction on state and local taxes, or SALT, from $10,000 to $40,000.

After the meeting, Kean, for his part, said only that, "It's always great to be here.":

Kean did spend some time chatting with Joe Hathaway of Randolph.  He's the mayor of Randolph, but of more importance here, he will be the Republican congressional nominee in the CD-11 special election in April. Hathaway is unopposed in the primary.

Things are quite different on the Democratic side. Twelve candidates are fighting it out in the Feb. 5 primary.

For the record, Kean already has endorsed Hathaway.

A reorganization meeting is a time for a governing body to celebrate.

Morris County does that well.

It does have a lot going for it. It is affluent, crime is low, services are good and the park system is top notch.

With all that good stuff going on, humility can get lost.

"Morris County is the best run county in New Jersey - by far," is how Krickus put it.  So there.

Also taking the oath for a new term was Sheriff Jim Gannon.

Gannon, of course, was hoping to be sworn in as lieutenant governor, but that did not pan out.

By now, Gannon seems to have put the election behind him. He put it this way as a large crowd of supporters watched:

"I don't know if you noticed, I love being the sheriff of Morris County."