The presence of labor leader Joe Wilkins on the District 2 Democratic ticket prompted Team Whelan to march out of their huddle at party headquarters in Linwood Friday with an eye-of-the-tiger demeanor not lost on some of the charged-up labor reps in the room.

But over in Egg Harbor Township, engineer Vince Polistina was hardly impressed with news about the candidacy of a former assistant commissioner of labor who resigned his post last week to run for the Assembly. Polistina, a Republican candidate for the Assembly in District 2, said, "We need new faces in Trenton. We keep sending the same old people back there. We’re one of two states in the nation that are in the red. We need to put controls on spending and rein in the culture of corruption in Trenton."

It was the perfect setting for an immigration related press conference: an old train terminal in Jersey City’s Liberty State Park, within view of the Statue of Liberty, where countless immigrants poured off ferries from nearby Ellis Island to board trains for points West.

It was here that Gov. Jon Corzine signed an executive order creating a new blue ribbon panel on immigration during a well-choreographed, well-attended event. But there was a less jubilant undertone as well -- it was clear that the Governor did not want the tension that characterized the recent Morristown anti-immigration rally to replicate across the state.

The panel will have 27 members – two state legislators chosen from the black and Hispanic caucus, seven commissioners from state agencies, and 18 members appointed by the Governor. It will be led by Public Advocate Ron Chen for a period of 15 months, with a mission to recommend how to integrate the state’s immigrant population – both legal and illegal – in matters ranging from civil rights, naturalization, healthcare, employment, job training, housing, education and language.

The 14th District features a match-up at the top of the ticket between a man generally regarded as the Republican golden boy, Assemblyman Bill Baroni of Hamilton Township, and former rate payer advocate, Democrat Seema Singh of South Brunswick Township, who is the state’s first Indian-American woman candidate for Senate.

Then there’s the brawl below, where Assemblywoman Linda Greenstein of Plainsboro hopes to hold onto her seat to win a fifth term by turning back Republican challengers Adam Bushman of Jamesburg and Tom Goodwin of Hamilton. Joining Singh and Greenstein on the Democratic ticket as the second Assembly candidate is Wayne DeAngelo of Hamilton.

The known Trenton quantities are favored here, which means both Baroni and Greenstein have the edge. Greenstein has a workhorse reputation and high name recognition, is pro labor and pro environment with a long record of public advocacy in elected office and as a lawyer. With his regular guy image, pro labor views and endorsements to show for it, Baroni appeals to working class families. Like Greenstein, he also likes to boast that he has enough of an independent record to entice the district’s core independents, who make up 73,183 of the voters in the 14th, compared to the Republicans’ 17,681 and the Democrats’ 29,366.