MONTVILLE – Election Day can mean “down time” for candidates.

There are no more mailings to dispatch and going “door-to-door” is more or less over.

One of the truly competitive local races is for a single Republican county commissioners’ nomination in Morris County.

I caught up with incumbent Tayfun Selen this morning at a local diner.

His challenger is Paul DeGroot, who if you recall, beat Selen just 12 months ago for the party’s CD-11 nod.

Selen said he’s feeling good.

Of course, no candidate on election day is going to say, “I feel awful, I’m gonna get killed.”

On this morning, a confident Selen reiterated his campaign theme.

“I believe that the choice is clear – choice versus the most liberal Republican in Morris County politics.”

Selen’s point is that DeGroot moved too far “left” when he ran against Democrat Mikie Sherrill last fall.

Selen conceded that GOP candidates need to move to the middle in the general election, but said DeGroot overdid it.

DeGroot, most recently, has hit Selen hard on some of his past problems, including a bankruptcy filing almost 20 years ago.

Selen said that was a long time ago and you learn from your mistakes

* * *

Before seeing Selen, I dropped by the Montville Senior House, the polling place for multiple districts. Traffic in and out of the parking lot was steady.

This is the hometown of both state Sen. Joe Pennacchio and challenger Tom Mastrangelo, who are involved in a nasty battle.

Still, this is destined to be a low turnout election, but for the sake of democracy, maybe it won’t be as bad as some think,

I hoped to meet Mastrangelo as he voted, but we got our wires crossed and he never showed up at the appointed time.

One hopes for his sake that he remembered to vote.