For a brief time this summer, Democrats were considering doing something no major political party has ever attempted in New Jersey, The Auditor has learned: Recall a sitting governor.

As outrage among Democrats over Gov. Chris Christie’s budget cuts simmered in late June and early July, at least one high level Democrat — Assemblyman John Wisniewski (D-Middlesex), the party’s state chairman — seriously considered an all-out effort by the party and its allies to collect the 1.3 million signatures necessary to remove Christie from office.

Democrats decided that if they tried, they’d really have to collect about 1.7 million signatures — the total number of registered Democrats in the state — to build in a cushion.

Wisniewski declined to comment. But The Auditor has learned that myriad potential drawbacks caused him to reject the idea, including the real possibility that failure would strengthen Christie, and setting such a precedent could make this a chaotic weapon regularly used against governors of both parties.

And there are unresolved legal issues. Democrats believe the law would mean Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno would be recalled as well, since she was elected with Christie, allowing Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester) to assume the office. But if they were wrong, Guadagno could simply assume office, appoint Christie as lieutenant governor, quit and allow him to get the big job again.

While major parties haven’t launched them, recall attempts aren’t rare. In 2008, former Glen Ridge Mayor Carl Bergmanson launched a failed effort to recall former Gov. Jon Corzine. And just this month, a liberal group called NJ-CAN started a campaign to recall Christie — and remove Sweeney and Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver (D-Essex) from their leadership posts.

Conventional wisdom?

Now that U.S. Rep. Steve Rothman (D-9th Dist.) is pushing for Democrats to hold their 2016 convention at the Meadowlands or the Prudential Center in Newark, a Republican wants the GOP to get into the act.

Assemblyman Jon Bramnick (R-Union) told The Auditor he’ll propose a 2016 GOP convention in the Garden State, saying it would send a message that “New Jersey is on the way back and moving forward.”

The timing could work for Christie, who, while insisting he will not run for president next year, has kept his 2016 options open.

Prudential Center spokesman Robert Sommer said officials from the Rock will get together with officials from the Giants and the Jets — who built the New Meadowlands Stadium — to discuss it. “Obviously, we love the idea,” he said.

New Jersey last hosted a national convention in 1964, when Lyndon Johnson accepted the Democratic nomination in Atlantic City.

Bramnick said he’d like to focus his proposal on Newark, with some events at the Meadowlands.

“We could have a DMZ. We could put the Republicans on one side of the 50 yard line and the Democrats on the other side,” he said.

Take Exit 7A, Ron

Former Public Advocate Ronald Chen, whose job was eliminated by Christie, is finding his way back to Trenton.

He’s been tapped to serve as counsel to John Farmer Jr. in his role as tiebreaker for the congressional redistricting process.

Last week, Chen, vice dean at Rutgers School of Law-Newark, pinch hit for Farmer when he represented legislative redistricting tiebreaker Alan Rosenthal during a Superior Court hearing in Trenton on a tea party lawsuit challenging the new district map.

But even with all this map business, Chen said he had to reprogram his GPS to return to the capital city.

“I forgot how to get here,” he joked.

Sidamon-Eristoff: Now that's the ticket!

If you ever avoided a late charge on a New York City parking ticket or successfully appealed one, you may want to thank New Jersey Treasurer Andrew P. Sidamon-Eristoff.

That's because, as finance commissioner under Mayor Rudolph Giuliani more than a decade ago, the meticulous Sidamon-Eristoff redesigned the back of the city's parking ticket to make it more understandable for angry drivers.

He said the old ticket was confusing and failed to properly warn recipients of high late fees or how to appeal a violation. So he created two separate boxes that clearly explained both.

After the first 8 million tickets were printed, he quickly learned his intuition was correct — and that he might have to start redesigning his own budget. The change, he said, slightly reduced the city’s revenue from tickets. “The reason was because people were not confused and paid the ticket on time, or they appealed it,” the treasurer said with a laugh.

A copy of the redesigned parking ticket hangs in his Statehouse office, a memento from his former staff.