Morris County Republicans convened last month and endorsed three candidates for county commissioner – incumbent Doug Cabana, Christine Myers and Sarah Neibart.

Left out was incumbent Tom Mastrangelo. Undaunted, Mastrangelo is seeking re-election on his own beginning with the June primary without the imprimatur of the county endorsement or line.

Cabana, meanwhile, who had teamed up with Mastrangelo in seeking convention support, is now on a team with Myers and Neibart.

All this is how the convention process is supposed to work, right?

Yes.

But no.

Morris GOP activists were surprised a few days ago to see a campaign mailing from Mastrangelo asking voters to support both him and Cabana.

But wait. Cabana is on the other team.

Yes, he is, but Mastrangelo is still, in a strong way, endorsing him. Clearly, Mastrangelo feels linking himself to Cabana is good for his election chances – even if Cabana has the “county line” and he (Mastrangelo) does not.

What gives?

Mastrangelo said today that he’s running his own campaign, but that he and Cabana have been a solid team together. Mastrangelo, of course, can say whatever he wants on campaign literature.

However, this is a bit ticklish for Cabana, although there’s nothing bad about another candidate endorsing him.

The problem is that soon after the convention, Cabana said he would run with Myers and Neibart. But if people vote for Mastrangelo and Cabana, one of the other two will be left out.

Cabana today reiterated that, “I’m running with Christine (Myers) and Sarah (Neibart).”

Mastrangelo’s campaign piece is out and about and to use the cliche – you can’t put the toothpaste back in the tube. But Cabana did say that he asked Mastrangelo not to use his name on any other campaign pieces.