BOONTON TWP. – When you have a long day ahead, nothing is better than doughnuts.

Anthony M. Bucco knows that.

Bucco was at the town hall polling place soon after it opened at 6 a.m., carrying a box of doughnuts.

His late father began the custom of buying breakfast snacks for poll workers years ago and the younger Bucco is carrying on the tradition.

And he’s been getting a lot of practice. Because of the death of the elder Bucco last year, his son is running today in a special election to fill a LD-25 seat in the Senate – but only for one year  The seat
will be up again in 2021.

Bucco also ran last year and was reelected to the state Assembly.

So, this could mean three general elections in three years for Bucco.

That’s a lot of doughnuts.

The issue here is a tight race in LD-25, the only Legislative race on the agenda this year. The presidential race may overshadow just about everything, but this election is a big deal locally.

Fresh from winning two congressional seats and narrowing the registration gap, Democrats hope they can grab a Senate and an Assembly seat in a district that covers northern and western Morris and one town in Somerset, Bernardsville.

It was that hope that brought Murphy to Sunday’s “launch rally.” After the speeches, volunteers were to flock out around the district to drop off literature and visit voters.

The governor’s presence was itself noteworthy. Because of COVID, Murphy in particular and the Democrats in general have held very few in-person events. Murphy said his trip to Randolph was to be his only live event of the day; the others would be virtual.

The Democrats are Rupande Mehta challenging Bucco in the Senate and Darcy Draeger against Dunn in the Assembly.

“The 25th is there for the taking,” the governor said. “We’ve got 48 hours.”