MENDHAM TOWNSHIP – When Andy Kim came through the door at Thursday night’s Morris County Democratic holiday party, the crowd broke out in sustained applause.

“Look, I feel the energy right now,” Kim said as he made the rounds of the Brookside Community Center. “Every single event I go to all over the state, people are fired up.”

Kim, the CD-3 congressman challenging First Lady Tammy Murphy for the party’s Senate nomination, certainly needs voters to be as “fired up” as can be.

At the same time, and just a few miles away in Morristown, county Republicans gathered for a party of their own. Coincidentally, both Christmas-related events were at the same time.

Traffic and parking were awful around Morristown on this mid-December night, but many loyal Republicans made it to The Laundromat, a speakeasy-style bar below DeHart Street.,

Christine Serrano Glassner, an announced Republican candidate for Senate, was there.

So, who does she want to run against – Kim or Murphy?

It was a question no candidate would answer, but also one that had to be asked.

Not surprisingly, she said she had no preference.

It is possible, theoretically at least, that Bob Menendez may be the candidate, but that really is unlikely.

Glassner, like all candidates,  is on the holiday party circuit, having recently attended similar celebrations in Essex and Ocean counties.

Also on hand at the Republican party were Jack Ciattarelli,  a past and future gubernatorial candidate whose 2025 run is getting closer by the day.

Senator Jon Bramnick was there, posing for pictures with Freeholder Tayfun Selen, who won reelection last month.

In what was unusual for a political event, there were no formal speeches to the crowd. The venue was quite noisy with live music and other revelers elsewhere in the establishment, so oratory would have been difficult.

The Dems, who had the run of the community center, didn’t have that problem.

Kim spoke for a few minutes, talking about recent activities in Congress. The crowd jeered and sarcastically sighed when Kim noted that Kevin McCarthy just spent his last day as a congressman.

That was a nice interlude, but the real issue for Jersey Democrats over the next six months is Kim versus Murphy.

The First Lady already has racked up a number of party establishment endorsements, including one from the local congresswoman, Mikie Sherrill.

But judging from the response Kim just got from Morris Dems, the rank and file may be another story.

“Which means that the people are on my side,” he said. “Right now, I’m 19 points up in the polls.”