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Sen. Kevin O'Toole (R-Essex) speaks during a voting session in Trenton on June, 25, 2015. (Patti Sapone | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

When you hear about death threats, the backdrop is usually a power struggle in the mob, or a really bad marriage.

As of this week, add New Jersey politics to that list.

"Did I fear my life? You bet I did," says Sen. Kevin O'Toole. "Look, politics is a rough business. And we use colorful language in Essex County. But this really struck home."

Pull up a chair, please. Because in nearly 30 years of covering New Jersey politics, this is the darkest story I've ever heard.

It was first reported by Matt Friedman at Politico Thursday morning, and is here flushed out with ugly details and quotes from all the key parties.

O'Toole (R-Essex) says the threat was made in 2005 by Paul DiGaetano, then a leading Republican assemblyman dreaming about a long-shot bid for governor.

Former Assemblyman Paul DiGaetano in a 2004 Star-Ledger photo.

"He calls me in March and says 'I've got see you immediately,'" O'Toole says. "He said, 'I need the line in Essex. If I get that, I can really win this thing."

The "line" is the endorsement of the county organization, which gets a candidate the best ballot position and a decisive advantage.

But O'Toole never liked DiGaetano. They were rivals fighting over the same sandbox. So O'Toole, sitting in his law office in Nutley, shot down DiGaetano hard, on the spot. No way.

Here's O'Toole's version of what happened next. Needless to say, DiGaetano denies every scrap of it:

DiGaetano, furious, made an explicit and terrifying threat.

"You know me," he said. "I will f...ing kill you if I don't get this."

"Excuse me?" O'Toole said.

"I'm going to kill you. You know the people I hang out with. You hear me? I want the f...ing line!"

At this point, let's pause for some politics. Getting the county lines is indeed the key to winning elections in New Jersey, which is a core reason this state is run by political bosses.

Some candidates throw around huge sums of money to get the line. Jon Corzine set records, and this year's independently wealthy candidate, Phil Murphy, is likely to do the same.

Others promise jobs for allies of county chairmen, or they swap support for each other's friends, or agree to push legislation that can't be defended on the merits. It's not pretty stuff.

But death threats? This is all new.

DiGaetano denies it all. But O'Toole says he talked to several people about it at the time. One of them was a local official in Essex County who would not let me use his name, perhaps fearful that he might be shot dead.

It seemed reasonable, so I agreed to those terms.

"I really don't want to get in the middle of this," he began. "But Kevin did call me and say, 'Look, I want to report a death threat.' He explained to me it was Paul DiGaetano. I said, 'Look if you're telling me this I have to go downstairs and file a police report. He said 'Let me think about it. Hold off. Maybe I'll go to the attorney general's office.'

"He was rattled. I've known Kevin a long time. He's a savvy guy, but when he gets worked up, he rambles. He talks faster. I know when he's rattled.

"But I never talked to him about it again. I left it in his hands. He decided he wanted to go in a different direction."

O'Toole says he was genuinely scared that escalating this by filing charges would endanger his family. So he went to Attorney General Peter Harvey instead, and he says Harvey sent investigators who asked him to wear a wire and trick DiGaetano into repeating the threat.

"I was worried about the kids," O'Toole says. "I said, 'I'm not going to wear a listening device. I'm not that guy. But I will tell you if he threatens me again.'"

Here, the plot thickens. I couldn't reach Harvey this morning but he told Friedman earlier that he had no recollection of discussing this with O'Toole.

"I don't remember him ever saying it to me or anyone reporting it to me," Harvey said.

But wait: He then leaves this odd bit of wiggle room at the end: "I'm not suggesting that it didn't happen."

So did it happen? I wish I could tell you for sure.

There are political crosscurrents here. DiGaetano is running for chairman of the Bergen County Republican Organization in two weeks. And O'Toole hates him, because two years after this clash, DiGaetano sponsored a nasty challenge against O'Toole that left bitter feelings.

So why is this story coming up now, 11 years after the fact? O'Toole has already announced he's leaving politics at the end of his current term. So I asked him if he's telling this story now to get revenge.

"No, I'm not," he swore. "Matt Friedman called me out of the blue and said he heard it independently. He asked me if I deny it. I can't deny it happened. I told him I didn't want to talk about it."

Hmm. Intentional or not, this remarkably timed disclosure should indeed kneecap DiGaetano's bid to become chairman. The convention is set for June 21.

As for DiGaetano, he is doing what any bloodless media advisor would suggest: He's claiming O'Toole is bigot who is smearing all Italians with this charge.

"Kevin and I haven't gotten along in a decade now," DiGaetano says. "For years we served together in the legislature while 'The Sopranos' ran. There was a whisper campaign about DiGaetano, an Italian, being connected to organized crime and Sopranos. Now this just plays into that."

Did he ever hear O'Toole or his staff slur the Italian people? I asked for names, and promised I'd track that down.

But no. DiGaetano says only that there's been a "whisper campaign" from O'Toole's "supporters." Not much to work with there.

As for Harvey's denial, O'Toole is mystified.

"We absolutely had several conversations -- -absolutely," he swears. "My guess is Peter either doesn't remember, or he wants to protect me and not admit it."

He scoffs at the anti-Italian charge, and notes that he just returned from a wedding in Italy where his former chief of staff, Dominic Fiorilli, tied the knot.

"That's how anti-Italian I am," says O'Toole.

It is chilling to think this even might be true. In 2005, a secret recording surfaced of George Norcross, the South Jersey power broker, playing his ugly brand of politics, and it was hair-raising.

Norcross bragged about placing allies in no-show jobs. He justified steering government contracts to campaign donors. He even threatened to castrate one political foe.

But you had the impression it was just a figure of speech. This time, O'Toole is talking about the real thing.

But there is no recording this time, so we may never know the truth for sure.

Is O'Toole telling the truth? Or is this a ruthless act of revenge? Or is it both?

More: Tom Moran columns

Tom Moran may be reached at tmoran@starledger.com or call (973) 836-4909. Follow him on Twitter @tomamoran. Find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook.