The buzz from Hank Lyon’s joker-like buzzer hand shake of Assemblywoman Betty Lou Decroce to start the Republican Primary campaign season in LD26 wore off with the cold shock of a rejoinder from the new DeCroce spokesman:

Veteran GOP gunslinger Chris Russell.

Russell officially landed this week in the Morris County-based battleground district, hired on to handle what appears early to be the very energized presence of Lyon in the Assembly Primary contest.

The freeholder’s strategy appears to be to browbeat DeCroce for her “aye” vote on the gas tax hike in exchange for nixing the estate tax to pay for the state’s depleted Transportation trust Fund (TTF). Russell, who joins a team headed by DeCroce chief of staff, veteran operative George Dredden, means to throw the discussion back to Lyon’s tenure on the board.