NORTH HALEDON – It’s like the sun.

If you stare directly at the seven-headed chandelier in this North Jersey banquet hall for too long, you feel like you could lose your eyesight.

That central fixture lit up the polished dance floor in the Tides, an Italianate manse nestled on a mountain high above Paterson, where 9^th District rivals U.S. Rep. Steve Rothman and U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell didn’t dance tonight in a room jammed with party foot soldiers.

After the June Democratic Primary, one of these two men will be gone, forced by redistricting into political oblivion, and that grim fact underscores everything whenever the men encounter each other now.

A week ago, the Bergen County Democratic Organization deprived Pascrell of a microphone on the other side of the river in this new, two-county congressional district, giving a lone 9^th District platform to the Bergen-based Rothman as Pascrell frenetically worked the room.

At the annual Passaic County dinner last night, Chairman John Currie permitted both home county king Pascrell and the interloping Rothman to address the crowd.

“I’m not here to talk about me – I’m here to talk about you guys and gals – cause that’s why we’re all here tonight,” Pascrell told a room of familiar Passaic power faces, including state Sen. Nellie Pou, Sheriff Richard Berdnik, Surrogate Bernice Toledo, Assemblywoman Shavonda Sumter, Assemblyman Benji Wimberly, Freeholder Bruce James, Freeholder Director Pat Lepore, Freeholder T.J. West, Passaic Mayor Alex Blanco and many others.

Tonight, the veteran congressman highlighted his allies as a way of projecting county strength for the coming election, on one level a showdown with the bigger Bergen.

“I’m all about where you’re from, and I haven’t moved from where I lived all my life,” he said, a jab at Rothman, who has to relocate from Fair Lawn back to Englewood to stay in the 9^th District.

Pascrell also blurted outright a well-muttered behind-the-scenes political assessment, which is that he will need monster turnout in Paterson and Clifton in order to offset a 61% Democratic Party registration base Rothman figures to command from his old district.

“When I look at the turnout and see 13 and 17% of the vote, I think what have we become as a nation?” Pascrell shouted.

“Si, se puede; si, se puede!” screamed the crowd.

For at least a week, the hard-edged Patersonian Pascrell has tried to torture Team Rothman with the argument that their man ran from a real fight with incumbent U.S. Rep. Scott Garrett (R-5), a darling of the Tea Party movement.

When he strode to the podium tonight prior to his primary opponent, Rothman directly confronted the tough guy talk.

“I attended ten town hall meetings in August of 2010 where I defended (President Barack Obama’s healthcare initiative against Tea Party outrage),” said Rothman.

Prior to his public remarks, the Bergen congressman noted to PolitickerNJ.com, “Bill didn’t do any town halls in August. He did one in September.

“I was the only New Jersey congressman who endorsed Barack Obama when they all said I was naïve and crazy,” Rothman said. “I went around the country campaigning on his behalf.”

After a day in Washington, D.C. and another event in Secaucus, Pascrell allowed the earlier arriving Rothman time in a room crammed with Passaic County insiders. Accompanied by his most visible Passaic County ally, Assemblyman Gary Schaer (D-36), Rothman sedately waited for a turn at the microphone.

When Pascrell arrived, a well-timed whoop greeted the animated master retail politician as he lunged across the dance floor and hit ten hands in the span of about 30 seconds before descending on a table occupied by Currie, Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver (D-34), and state Sen. Richard Codey (D-27).

Alert to Pascrell’s early narrative that attempt to brand him as a party turncoat who runs from street fights, Rothman told the diverse crowd that all four of his grandparents were immigrants. His father, a machinist by trade, built the family home in Englewood.

Rothman’s generation was the first in his family to attend college.

“My people came from poverty to get a chance to achieve the American Dream,” said the congressman.

“I know how to fight,” he added. “My style may be different from others, but I delivered $2 billion to my district as a 12-year member of the House Appropriations Committee.”

Rothman defended the 9^th District as his terrain.

“I don’t have to change my stationery,” he said. “I still live in the 9^th.”

He received modest applause at the finish.

His rival commanded more.

“My idol, Vince Lombardi, said there’s no ‘I’ in team,” Pascrell said. “I love you. I say that from my heart.”

The congressman from Paterson soaked up a standing ovation, unquestionably the local star tonight.

But in the teeth of a contest, inevitably an unspoken question haunted the room with Rothman on his feet and clapping respectfully: and that was whether the crowd’s appreciation was a building battle cry or simply a plaintive goodbye.