In a surprise announcement Monday, Sen. Steve Oroho (R-Sussex) said he was calling it quits after more than two decades in the Legislature. The 24th District, where he’s served since 2008, is in the solidly Republican-leaning northwestern part of the state.

Fellow Republican representatives in the district, Assemblymen Hal Wirths and Parker Space, had also announced they would retire at the end of their terms. But Space cut his retirement short and announced that he will run for Oroho’s seat this year in what is promising to be a freewheeling election season, especially in the GOP.

Frequent candidate and former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan already announced a bid to represent the district in the Assembly. Conventional wisdom is that he will now run for the Senate seat, setting up what would be a battle of two quite conservative conservatives.