Democratic sources Tuesday said the Legislature’s passage of pension and benefits reform last summer may have hurt the party in the short term but took a powerful campaign issue off the table for Republicans.

The reforms, which require public employees to pay a greater share of their pension and health benefits, were passed last summer with unanimous Republican support but only modest support from legislative Democrats, many of whom felt the party was selling out its organized labor base.

Passing the measure, some Democrats say, removed it as a campaign issue and kept Gov. Chris Christie from hammering at Democrats as do-nothing union lap dogs.

“I think Christie would have hit that hard,” said one Democratic source who was part of negotiations over the deal.  “I think if we didn’t get that done he would have used it all over the state and now it’s off the table.”

It’s unknown how the issue would have played in Election Day, but what is known is Sen. Bob Gordon, fighting for his political life in LD38, voted against the measure, but still was able to run afoul of local trades unions when he trashed a plan to publicly finance the revival of the Xanadu project.

In LD2, Sen. Jim Whelan voted in favor of the measure, earning him the wrath of public employee unions. But a threatened labor campaign against Whelan never materialized.  His opponent, Republican Assemblyman Vince Polistina, also voted in favor of the plan, removing it as a major issue in the 2^nd.

State Democratic Chairman John Wisniewski, who voted against the measure in the Assembly earlier this year, said it’s all about perspective.

“I guess that depends on which side of the table you are on,” he said.  “There are still some segments of society that are unhappy with that legislation, so I think it’s a mixed bag.”

As he has throughout the election, Wisniewski stuck to the storyline that the election is a referendum on the governor, nothing more, nothing less.

"This election is not about pension and benefit reform, it’s about people paying higher property taxes when they were told they wouldn’t. It’s about people seeing an assault on public education and saying that’s not good.  It’s about Chris Christie not being right for New Jersey.”