Gov. Jon Corzine campaigns in Atlantic City for Team Whelan on Sunday.

The Absecon Channel separates Brigantine from Atlantic City in this world of salt water and low-slung housing broken up by tragicomic human silos with names like Taj and Showboat.

But it’s all the same battlefield here in the 2nd district, where forces are mobilizing for Sen. (and Egg Harbor Township Mayor) James "Sonny" McCullough or Assemblyman James Whelan.

In Atlantic City, a second tall and bearded politician joins Team Whelan today in a senior citizens complex on Atlantic Avenue. It’s Gov. Jon Corzine, who knows seniors are a critical voting block, particularly in an off-election year like this, and he’s working the older crowd overtime with his best up-close-and-personal demeanor.

Driving in the rain in Atlantic County, Democratic Assemblyman Jim Whelan says he knows it’s going to be close on Election Day when all these long months of arguing and talking and walking and pounding and fund-raising and driving come to a head in his challenge of GOP Sen. James "Sonny" McCullough.

"A win by one point is still a win," says Whelan. "Boston won the first game of the World Series the other night, 13-1. They won the second game, 2-1. The result of the second game is still the same as the first. They won."

Whelan has the strong arm reliever coming into the game in the form of Senate President Richard Codey, who’s got an $800,000 fast ball, and on Sunday, Gov. Jon Corzine will campaign with Whelan.

A Republican poll has Jim Whelan and Sonny McCullough in a dead heatAn internal campaign poll obtained by PoliticsNJ.com shows the second district state Senate race in a statistical dead heat, with Republicans leading in the contest for two Assembly seats.

The poll, which was conducted by McLaughlin & Associates, shows 41.7% of voters either voting for Democrat Jim Whelan or leaning towards him, while 41.3% picked Republican James “Sonny” McCullough.

In the Assembly contest, with respondents picking a combination of their first and second choices, Republican John Amodeo has a commanding lead over the pack, with 36%. The next preference was for Vince Polistana, with 28.7%, followed by Joe Wilkins with 27% and Blondell Spellman with 26.3%.

The District 2 Democratic Assembly candidates today challenged their Republican opponents to a minimum of five debates before Election Day.

Joe Wilkins and Blondell Spellman proposed 45 minute, one-on-one debates in front of an audience of voters, with questions posed by moderators, the audience, and the candidates themselves. They said the forums must be hosted by a non-biased, independent organization or media outlet, suggesting as possibilities the Press of Atlantic City, the League of Women Voters, Richard Stockton State College, New Jersey Network, or Pinky's Corner.

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."

The Democrats in District 2 beefed up their union cred today with the addition of labor leader Joe Wilkins, a move that can’t help but have nose-to-nose implications when considering that one of the men lining up on the other side of the grid is a rank-and-file crane operator turned lead engineer, former Linwood City Councilman John Amodeo.

A man who began his union career in 1956 as an apprentice with the plumbers and steamfitters local 121, Wilkins of Galloway Township joined the ticket as a replacement candidate today in a packed room at party headquarters in Linwood and vowed to help make life here more affordable for working families - which is just what Amodeo says he wants to do, incidentally.

Atlantic County Republicans didn't waste any time going after their brand new Assembly opponent on monetization, but the new candidate had already fielded a question on the issue in his kick-off press conference.

"I am opposed to any leasing of toll roads," Democratic Assembly candidate Joe Wilkins said emphatically.