Marie Bilik

SPARTA -- Political contests are already primed for controversy in this part of the state, where fiercely held social beliefs on issues like abortion and gun rights routinely serve as flash points for debate at the local town hall. But throw in a botched solar energy program -- so botched, in fact, that it compelled the freeholder boards of three counties involved to buy out contractors' litigation costs at taxpayers' expense last month -- and you get something more interesting.

SPARTA -- It's the primaries that more often than not serve as the real contests in bucolic -- and heavily conservative -- 24th legislative district, where a sprawling GOP come election time finds expression in a jockeying of candidates each with their own versions of the party's ideological core. Republicans outnumber Democrats by nearly half, which means there's usually no real competition come November 4.