WHARTON - For about 10 minutes Saturday afternoon, this historic borough was at the epicenter of New Jersey politics.

Cory Booker was on the first leg of his annual 21-county state tour. And he began at the borough's Canal Day, a yearly celebration of the historic Morris Canal, which transported goods from the Delaware to the Hudson through much of the 1800's.

The senator clearly was in his element.

He posed for many photos, took many selfies with attendees, bought a Morris Canal cap for his wife, Alexis, who was with him, played a game of cornhole and more.

It took Booker nearly 90 minutes of moving booth to booth before he got around to the location of the Wharton Democrats.

And then Tom Kean Jr. appeared.

The borough is in Kean's Seventh Congressional District. And Kean was making the rounds himself.

Partisanship tends to fade when politicians encounter each other at public events. Both men greeted each other warmly.

Booker joked about liking bipartisanship.

Booker's attendance was expected; the Wharton stop was on his public schedule.

Kean's office does not offer the congressman's public schedule, so his appearance was unexpected to most.

Kean, fresh off a Friday event with House Speaker Mike Johnson, said he was doing well. He moved on and spoke to some of those in attendance. He did not stay all that long.

Booker was clearly enjoying himself.

He is spoken about at times as a possible presidential candidate in 2028 and on this day, many attending flocked to him.

He signed a book he had written for one admirer and paused for a bit at the booth of the Morris Canal itself.

Here was all the history you needed to know ... from the series of water driven inclined planes (quite the accomplishment at the time) along its 107-mile length to its demise in the early 1900's because of the railroad.

"This is such an amazing bit of history," he said.

Other parts of his trek brought both the serious and the, shall we say, non-serious.

First things first.

Parents of a man serving in the Middle East asked the senator to record a phone video for their son.

He obliged, thanking the young man for his service, saying he would like to meet him in person and expressing hope that he would be home soon. The man's parents said he's been "somewhere in the Middle East" for five months.

And then there was Izzy Zalouf, a 15-year-old who offered to give the senator an "intelligence test."

Booker gamely accepted. These were designed as trick questions of a sort. Here was one of them.

"How many animals did Moses bring on the ark?"

Booker did not fall for the trap and correctly answered that Moses had nothing to do with the ark.

Always a spiritual type, Booker at one point during his day locked hands with those at the booth of the El Shaddai Assembly of God Church for a group prayer.

That seemed fitting when young Izzy asked him to name the Ten Commandments off the top of his head.

He got eight of them, although not necessarily in order.